-fresh youthful faces to serve on RDC
WITH the APNU+AFC coalition gaining 86% of the regional votes cast at the March 2 elections, the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) will return to the management of the coalition as was the case for many decades. The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) managed to rake in about 3000 votes and therefore will be allocated about three seats on the RDC, an allocation that has been given to them for many past councils, including the immediate past one.
Former PPP Regional Councillor Dexter Harding, upon announcement of the results, said he was very pleased with his party’s achievement which reflects a slight increase to the votes the party obtained in 2015. He said the party is ready to serve the region and regional candidates will be pulled from the constituencies from which the most votes were garnered. A decision however will be made at the central executive level of the party.
Regional candidate however, Sherry Fyfe, said she is ready to serve at the regional level and will put her best foot forward to make the necessary representation for her constituency. Fyfe is already a councillor at the Linden Mayor and Town Council and is a veteran PPP member.
The APNU regional candidates however comprise a mixture of youth, women and professionals. More than half of the list consists of new faces who have never served on the regional council. These include businessman Deron Adams; Community Development Officer, Keisha Griffith McKane; Insurance Broker, Yanick Graham; Entrepreneur, Mark Goring; Restaurateur, Jemaine Figueira; Trade Unionist, Leslie Gonsalves and Community Activist, Kevon Lorrimer.
Naturally, Adams, who presently serves on the municipal council and is former Chairman of the PNCR Region 10 Chapter, feels honoured to be included on a list which will enable him not to only represent his municipality, but his region, a desire he holds close to his heart.
Looking back on the strides he has made during his political career, Adams said he had been instrumental in execution of the Information Communication Technology (ICT), programme in Region 10 and coordinated several workshops which resulted in the formation of the Linden Youth Network; this is a youth group made up of youths who successfully completed the programme and are now able to train other youths in the ICT field. “An ICT centre is currently under construction at Retrieve and this facility will give students and professionals the opportunity to access online services for free, in keeping with government’s vision for the sector,” Adams related.
Already, Adams has set the stage for subsidised ICT services at his Internet café. Being an advocate for education, Adams also launched a ”Catch up” programme for children residing on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway. “ The programme was geared at boosting our children’s reading and writing skills, keeping them engaged and interested in reading books, playing games, learning the use of the computer etc in the literacy lessons,” Adams said, adding that he had also organised several book drives since entering politics. Other accomplishments include contributions to sports development, agricultural development and senior citizens empowerment through the Adopt a Grand-Friend initiative.
If given a chance to serve at the Regional Democratic Council, Adams said he will make the necessary representation to address concerns and problems such as public Infrastructure, improved health services and promoting the “green” economy.
CDO of Ituni, Keisha Griffith McKane, may be given a chance to make representation for her community at the level of the RDC. Though she has always been an advocate for community development, Griffith McKane said, “I am very enthusiastic about this nomination. I intend to advocate for job opportunities be brought to my community and neighbouring communities in the form of tourism and factories. Factories that can be established from the natural resources that are available in this area.”
Similar sentiments were expressed by AFC candidate Mark Goring, who said he is humbled to be selected as a candidate and while he is relatively new to active politics, he has been following same and has a fair idea of what is expected of him. “I’m a young entrepreneur who wants to make a difference and get things done in this region. Quietly I have been contributing to sports and education, whereas my company has done a lot of donations over the years; in fact, my company is currently sponsoring a full-time University of Guyana second-year Engineering student.”
Goring is a believer in the saying, “It is not what my country can do for me, but what I can do for my country,” and therefore will be using the platform to touch people’s lives in a remarkable way throughout the RDC and is happy that the government would have given youths the opportunity to do for their country. If elected to the regional council, I will advocate for an orphanage, a nursing home for the elderly, the best quality roads in every village, the rehabilitation of all government properties with state-of-the-art amenities, proper security at all public schools for a safer learning space and most importantly, revitalise the agriculture sector so as to be self-sufficient in Region 10,” he said.
Noticeably not on the list as a candidate is former Regional Chairman Renis Morian. In an exclusive interview, he described his tenure as a very fulfilling and satisfying one. He said he is proud of his legacy and the lives he has transformed — particularly those of young people — over the last four years. Morian said that he took the oath of RC very seriously and for him, it was not about sitting in an office, but using that office to meet the needs of constituents, particularly youths who had converged on his office seeking an avenue for betterment. Many of them, he said, were school dropouts and delinquent youths who just needed a second chance.
As a school dropout himself, Morian said that he enjoyed seeing as many youths benefitting from training, job opportunities or returning to school.
Another one of his major achievements he noted, is pushing hard for social cohesion at the level of the RDC and the community at large. “I think for me my greatest contribution in Region 10 is bringing people together; we were very much fragmented, coming to the RDC and working with all the political parties, I was able to bring people together,” he reminisced. Working with such a diverse council and with councillors of different personalities, he made it his duty that there was not disparity, which would have no doubt stagnated progress. Never once he said, was there an uproar in an RDC meeting or the suspension of meetings because of in-fighting and at the end of the four years, all councillors testified that they were indeed united. This unity was then reflected at the community level where the various stakeholders collaborated with the RDC and even residents, to ensure progress was made and help was received, especially during a crisis, such as a natural disaster.
Morian served as councillor for three councils under the previous administration and affirmed that the difference between serving under the former government and the coalition government, was that no directive was given from central government. “One of the basic changes with this administration, is that the chairman is allowed to do his duties without directives coming from Georgetown…This administration allows the chairman to be creative, to come up with new ideas; nobody writes you and says will do that. It gives you the opportunity to grow in the job and once you have a cohesive council, it will work out,” he posited. This was the catalyst for development in Region 10, as there was no intended efforts from higher up to stymie progress.
The Ministry of Communities, he said, did not focus on giving directives, but on empowering the council and providing needed help in the area of development.
Source: https://issuu.com/guyanachroniclee-paper/docs/guyana_chronicle_e-paper_3-9-2020