Latest update April 23rd, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 21, 2014 News
– but opposition anti-developmental, says President Ramotar
No circumstance should be so dire that you can’t send your children to school,” was the warning vocalised by President
Donald Ramotar as he addressed a gathering of parents in Mabaruma, Region One, recently.
It is the conviction of the Head of State that once parents are able to give their children roots and good values including the principle that “honesty is the best policy and not to be corrupt” they will be well on their way to a better future.
“We still have to fight against corruption because of what happened in our country in the past,” said the President as he emphasised that it is also imperative that “we give them wings, and education is the wings…to let them fly; let the sky be the limit for our children.”
He noted therefore, that the onus is on parents to ensure that their children are able to access the education that they so deserve. “You have to ensure that they are in school so that they can grow their wings, fly and take on the world,” said the President as he underscored that Government has been continuously providing the necessary facilities for this to be achieved.
He recalled that in the past, up to 1992 to be precise, more than 70 per cent of children leaving primary school were not privileged to attend secondary schools. This was in light of the fact, the Head of State noted, that there were no secondary schools within proximity for them to be educated. “They (educators) had to fail them, not that they were dunce but they just had to fail them…today we have not reached universal secondary education as yet, but we are not far away from that either and hopefully with your support we will get there on time,” said an optimistic President Ramotar.
He however, intimated that Guyana has been able to put measures in place to achieve universal primary education. He observed that while Guyana may not be the most popular country in the Caribbean “we have more children in nursery school than any other country in the Caribbean.”
“We are the only country that has invested in an education channel so that instead of persons looking at the Young and the Restless and all the (other) nonsense, they can look at television and get an education in their head,” asserted the Head of State.
According to him too, Government is also now working with the University of Guyana to offer online courses so that persons can remain in their homes and study for a University degree.
“All of these things we are doing to develop the capacity of our people; because science and technology is in such a state now that you can stay in your own home and use your internet and computer and work for a company (even) in the United States or Europe…” explained the President.
He reported though, that Guyana will however not be able to take advantage of such advances unless there exists an educated population. “We have to continue to work in that regard…I need your support to get this done, because over the years that we have been in office we have put in new infrastructures and we have developed the social sector of our society,” the President told an attentive gathering at the Mabaruma Primary School.
According to him “we are working very hard to develop the economic side, but we need new infrastructures to do this and that is why we want to have the hydro electricity, that is why we want to develop these things. We had it in our budget this year and we are putting it back – money to develop the Amerindian villages,” said the President.
He went on to note that while Government has been able to employ more people in the Amerindian communities to do different kinds of work and services, “they (parliamentary opposition) cut that in the budget but at the same time these hypocrites tell us that they are interested in jobs for our youths…at the same time, they tell us that they are interested in our Amerindian communities and when they (were) in office they did not a damn thing in these communities.”
“Now we are trying to build schools, to build airstrips, to build other infrastructural facilities (and) they are cutting them…they cut out all the money to maintain the airstrips and build new airstrips in the interior,” said the President as he thoroughly lambasted the parliamentary opposition.
He shared the notion that Guyana is faced with a situation where the Government of the day has to deal with an opposition that is “anti-development” and went on to point out that “they are not using their one-seat majority to try to progress this country…”
“they have never said PPP (Peoples’ Progressive Party) you are spending too little money in the interior, spend more, give our people more facilities or we want to develop our tourism, this one Marriott is not enough you need to build five…they have never said that, instead they used their one-seat majority in the Parliament to stop these developments, and they are going to court to stop some of these developments (too)…they are totally, totally anti-developmental,” asserted the passionate Head of State.
Turning his attention to the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill, the President amplified its seriousness, insisting too that “it will affect each and every one of us.”
He explained that the international community was able to come together and conclude that a lot of drug money is used to finance terrorism. Moreover, it was decided that efforts must be made to ensure that all the countries of the world have the same type of legislation to prevent drugs and international criminals from using one country to be a base for such activities.
For this reason, President Ramotar noted that they (the international community) are trying to create conditions intolerable to the drug and anti-money launderers all over the world. “They feel so strong about it that if you don’t pass the legislation they can blacklist you and if they blacklist you, if you are particularly a poor country like Guyana, they can destroy your financial sector…this is not a Bill that the PPP has pulled out of its back pocket to carry to Parliament, it came out of the United Nations and these people (opposition) are preventing it from passing,” stressed the President.
He is convinced that the opposition has taken this stance because “they feel that they can make things bad for you and if they can damage the economy they believe you will support them; how stupid they are…they don’t think that we are educated enough to see?”
“This is one of the reasons they don’t want education; don’t they believe that you will see that the people who are damaging the development are the opposition?” questioned an evidently riled-up Head of State.
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