President Irfaan Ali creating a new dispensation in bringing Government to the people

Last week, in New Amsterdam, Region 6, President Irfaan Ali announced a new Government policy – Government Ministers and senior Government officials will be physically and formally present in each region, with a central location serving as a meet-up place, two days per month. In so doing, President Irfaan Ali is showing how serious he is about bringing Government to the people. President Ali is pursuing a “Government in your face” approach to governance. We have gotten use to the usage of the quote “Government of the people, by the people, for the people”. Most of the global citizenry living in a democracy do not really know what this means. We have been conditioned to think of democracy as having free and fair elections. But free and fair elections are only part of the equation.
Experiencing what “Government of the people, by the people, for the people” means is something most global citizens have rarely experienced. President Irfaan Ali is showing in a tangible way what this means. He is leading from the front by being present almost every day somewhere in Guyana. He has taken his Cabinet and senior Government officials directly to the people, not in a one-off show, but as a routine part of his governance.
This is not the first time the phenomenon of bringing Government to the people in a sustained way has taken place in Guyana. Cheddi Jagan’s PPP Government was known for its outreaches. President Jagan was frequently in communities, talking to the people. His ministers also were seen in the communities. These informal outreaches depended on the President and his ministers individually. President Bharrat Jagdeo built on the Cheddi Jagan legacy of presence in the community. President Jagdeo formalised Cabinet outreaches by frequently taking the Cabinet and senior officials on two-day outreaches. Cabinet meetings were, in fact, decentralised and held in different regions. During those Cabinet meetings, ministers and senior Government officials spread across the regions and met people where they live, engaging them in problem-solving. President Jagdeo was the first Head of State in Guyana, in Caricom and globally to formalise Cabinet outreaches as part of a bringing-Government-to-the-people governance model.
President Irfaan Ali is building on these models introduced by Cheddi Jagan and Bharrat Jagdeo. From the ad-hoc Cheddi Jagan model to the formalised Bharrat Jagdeo model, President Irfaan Ali has added to the formality of the Jagdeo model by instituting a frequency layer, ensuring these outreaches are held every month, and not periodically, as in the Jagdeo model. Both the Jagdeo and Ali models created an obligation on the ministers and senior Government officials, as opposed to the reliance on the willingness and individual preference of ministers to visit and engage people. But whereas the Jagdeo model created a mechanism for the Jagan model to continue, he also ensured the presence of ministers and senior Government officials by scheduling Cabinet meetings in different regions. The Jagdeo model ensured these Cabinet outreaches were done at least once per region every year.
President Irfaan Ali’s model of “bringing Government to the people” seeks to continue Jagan’s ad-hoc model, and to further formalise and expand on the Jagdeo model. By now establishing as a Government policy that a collective ministers’ and senior Government officials’ presence in a formal setting brings the Presidency and the Government to each region for two days per month, he has essentially established an Office of the President (OP) in every region. This, of course, sets the stage for permanent annexes of OP in every region and sub-region of the country. While President Ali wants the model to have a fixed location in each region for people to bring their problems and have them addressed, the model also ensures that, during this time, ministers and relevant officials also spread out in these regions, meeting people in the communities where they live and work. The approach ensures that the richness of the Jagdeo model is preserved and built on. The model also preserves the individual outreaches organised by the offices of ministers that were essential in both the Jagan and Jagdeo models.
The Opposition has deemed President Ali’s “bringing Government to the people” policy as a political gimmick that has not improved people’s lives. This is the same outcry we heard when Cheddi Jagan brought Government to the people. These same crocodile tears were heard and seen when Bharrat Jagdeo brought a new vision to the “bringing Government to the people” strategy. Therefore, it is not shocking to hear the Opposition and the naysayers parroting the same charges today.
But whether it is the formal collective Government outreaches or the individual minister’s outreaches, people are getting help. Hundreds of persons have had their chronic NIS problems, land leases and house lot problems, streets or street lights’ issues addressed. New schools have been built or have been budgeted to be built, because concerns were raised during these outreaches. Easier access has been created for pensioners because of these meetings. Better drainage has been created, because drainage and irrigation issues have been raised. Farmers and fishermen have raised issues, and have had them addressed. Police and security problems have been raised and addressed. Not all problems can be solved on the spot, but a mechanism has been developed for these issues to be tracked. President Irfaan Ali is showing in a real sense what “Government of the people, by the people and for the people” means.