Conversation Tree

The electoral victory of the People’s Partnership in Trinidad and Tobago, the subject of much recent comment in our press, has highlighted the issue of alliance politics which was pioneered by the PPP in Guyana.

The success of the People’s Partnership was based on this creative alliance, decisive leadership and hard work. The failures of governance during the PNM’s terms of office, allegations of corruption, squandermania and arrogant behavior played an important role in diminishing support of the PNM. These factors facilitated a landslide victory for the People’s Partnership. 

There is no doubt that Guyana has made tremendous progress in every area of life in the years since 1992 when the PPP/C was first elected to office. Most people, including me, believe that in some, or even many, areas more could have been done, or things could have been done differently. But this does not detract from the fact that visible and substantial progress has been made so that the lives of Guyanese people are measurably better that they were twenty years ago. 

 

Guyana is still officially named “The Co-operative Republic of Guyana.” The name was devised at the time when Guyana discovered its own path to socialism – through co-operatives. Thus Guyana’s theory of co-operative socialism was reflected in its name.

The spectacular collapse of “co-operative socialism” and the co-operative movement led to the complete abandonment of co-operatives as a method of economic organization. Thousands of people had lost millions of dollars which had been invested in agricultural, housing and other types of co-operatives. Bad management and corruption in a situation of declining economic growth had taken their toll.

A news report said that a World Bank team was in Guyana to discuss with officials the “adopting of modern legislation that will  allow customers to offer assets other than real estate as guarantees for loans.” This is welcome news. But this work has already been done.

In the mid 1990s a Canadian expert visited Guyana and examined our laws for the same purpose. He made several visits and spent several months on the project. He finally produced a report which is gathering dust on a shelf somewhere. It is not clear from the newspaper report if the authorities are aware of this report. 

T.E.S.P.A. is the lawyers’ acronym for the Termination of Employment and Severance Pay Act. It was passed in 1997 and is one of the most important pieces of legislation in the history of Guyana. Its objective is “to provide for the conditions governing termination of employment and grant of redundancy or severance pay to employees and for matters connected therewith.”