When the APNU+AFC faction was elected to serve the people five years ago, the only intention was to reform the nation. In fact, Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo says that the objective was to “Make Guyana clean again.”
But doing this has not been easy the official said. In his most recent column, “My Turn” which was published by the Chronicle Newspaper, Nagamootoo recalled that the government had to endure a “treacherous attempt” at its removal from office with a No-Confidence Motion. He also recalled the threats to Guyana’s sovereignty in the form of Venezuela’s spurious claim on the nation’s territorial waters.
Be that as it may, he said that the government braved it all and embarked on a “silent revolution”. The Prime Minister said, “…Over these five years, there has been what I described before as a silent revolution to restore integrity in public office. The slogan, ‘Make America Great’ in our context was ‘Make Guyana Clean Again! Our Government dramatically improved the legislative architecture, the development landscape and the lives of our people.”
Expounding on the good work of his government, he reminded that just a few days ago, the local media reported that the European Commission “delisted” Guyana from high-risk countries that are not fully prepared to combat the money-laundering. He also reminded that Transparency International in its report for 2019, disclosed that Guyana received its best score to date on the Corruption Perception Index (CPI). Nagamootoo asserted that this is a positive testimony that the Coalition Government has flattened the “pervasive corruption” curve which had reduced Guyana almost to the status of a criminalized state.
In addition to this, Nagamootoo noted that Freedom House, a US state-funded non-government organization, in its 2018 Freedom in the World Report, noted that Guyana continues to be listed as “free” and as an “electoral democracy” while urging the government “to continue pressing forward with anti-corruption reforms”.
He was keen to note that on the eve of the 2015 elections, the same entity had stated that Guyana has an informal economy that is driven primarily by drugs proceeds and that the then (PPP/C) government was unwilling to implement or enforce anti-corruption laws.
With such efforts at making Guyana clean again, Nagamootoo said he was hopeful that the coalition was set for an easy re-election. But other forces he said were and remain at work.
Even as the recount of the votes cast in the 2020 General and Regional Elections continues, Nagamootoo alluded to the fact that he remains proud of his government’s track record and would label it with the slogan, “High Five for Freedom!”
