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GUYANA PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS to the National Assembly Monday, 29th October, 1973 GUYANA SESSIONAL PAPER No.

1/1973 THIRD PARLIAMENT OF GUYANA Fl RST SESSION 1973 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS to the National Assembly Monday, 29th October, 1973 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS Mr. Speaker, May I offer you congratulations Your choice is ample proof of your sterling further success in the conduct of your duties and the performance of your tasks.

on your re-election to this high office?


service in the past and I wish you The First Session of the Third Parliament of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana finds my Government thus been given a mandate by the electorate but also to carry out certain previous ernbark upon new policies.

policies, not only to pursue to ·finality fundamental changes and to returned with an increased majority.
It has Two such changes have already of the age of majority reduction Guyana Court of Appeal as the final court of appeal for all matters the Courts of Guyana.

to eighteen by this House: the years and the institution of the arising in been approved Another, to facilitate the unimpeded operation of the Agency Shop, of an will be shortly int�uced This will represent the honouring undertaking given to the Trade Union Movement.

ideology and inspires The co-operative self-reliance informs country.
inherited advance New ways and methods are being constantly devised problems and difficulties, many of our communities has been well set and the spirit of throughout �he to tackle old intention and it is my Government's and programmes.
these activities assistance by positive further to The system of Regional Ministers under which Cabinet Government Ministers live in, for, specific geographic to the Central and are responsible regions, has already to th� people, respective between the Administration to co-ordinate regions, and the People.

been established.
been established.

various The object is to bring government closer activities intercommunication Government within the and to ensure the most meaningful stage, It may well be at an experimental cannot be· called into question.

and new techniques My will have looks forward to this new institution being an effective but the objectives to be adopted, Government mechanism, contributing purposeful considered Capital.
involvement "far off places" to greater of the citizens, because efficiency, springing from wider and more in what in the past have been of their relative remoteness from the It will have been noted that a new Ministry of Co-operatives and National portfolio Community Development.
efficiency, inspiring these several the elimination Mobilisation the responsibilities together for Youth, Local Government, has been created, bringing This new arrangement of unnecessary under a single Co-operatives is aimed at achieving greater and at of effort, duplication and areas with one central direction and purpose.

During the forthcoming period, special emphasis Development of life into practical on the mobilisation Plan and the translation schemes.
and material my Government proposes to place of people for the achievement of the co-operative of the and way philosophy In this context stated several months ago, there will and as publicly legislative be introduced, shortly This will be aimed at tapping moment lie idle, minimally and canalising human resources which at the employed and disoriented.

proposals for a system of National Service.

If approved primarily.

institutions Service encompass training National participation considerations.
by Parliament young persons, at the moment; though eventually precluded the scheme in its early phases will in and out of formal educational and the concept of or exempt from will embrace all Guyanese not by mental or physical incapacity or overriding national ... , r I Though in several discipline, military of National confused Service with, that and para-military will be much larger of Compulsory Military Service habits of cases, for the purpose of inculcating the concept training will be compulsory, and wider than, and is not to be One of the early objectives.
will he the provision orientation for unemployed youth.

who because of poor training.

of trainin g and or no 2 training potential.

at all, are not equipped to serve the nation to the maximum of their It must not be assumed, however, is only for the unemployed, that the scheme so far as youth are for many who might have had formal be disoriented and not sufficiently to service that the nation owes them committed Many too, might conceive concerned training, to the nation.
everything, might still and they owe the nation nothing.

Our society They are potentially retraining Guyana cannot afford has tended in the past to treat ex-prisoners as social useful and productive and their of the objectives of the go to waste, will be another to let any of its human and rehabilitation outcasts.

training, scheme.

rack and ruin, creating resources our society.


and disfiguring problems citizens social All young persons untrained have unlimited and unemployed horizons will, when the scheme so far as training opportunities comes into being, available to Guyanese the needs and demands enter the University are concerned, of the nation.

and in keeping with their aptitudes circumstances they will and In appropriate and other post secondary institutions.
A State Paper will shortly fully the .. aims, objectives National introduced.

Service.

be presented to this House setting arrangements our more and schematic And soon thereafter for the Guyana the legi_slative proposals will be During this Session, • , the maximum beneficial my Government proposes of our land resources.
utilisation ion, land unbeneficially owned or occupied Within the context will be brought to take steps to ensure of our Constitut into use by one means or another, land will be transferred practices many parts of the country.

to the tillers which go with the grasping for the service of the nation.
Agricultural and an end put to the exploitative which still landlordism primitive in exists the maximum productivity of such and other agricultural For achieving not only will the programme lands, but also the facilities Development Bank will be readily available.

of such institutions of infrastructural works proceed as the Co-operative apace, ural Agricult In the meantime of feeding, objectives pursued.
relentlessly the thrust clothing into the hinterland and housing and the will continue, the nation by the nation cause.

in this great national All must be involved My Government considers the people fully in the execution involve them in understandable their practical experiences.

and there must be a cross fertilisation of ideas.


terms of this Plan and also to learn from them and It has to be a truly national effort co-operative it its duty in this new period ahead, to of the Development Plan, to inform There will be a conscious effort upon which we are embarked, that all Guyanese what has been achieved, to ensure are aware of the revolution what remains to be achieved.
In this effort our cultural experiences, and the 3 and Visual Performing called and the achievement in the in aid and used as instruments and a Guyanese arts, for example, purposefully mobilisation will be organised, of human resources, of national spirit.

unity, An Institute , Painting in the folk culture in various located Literature firmly centres will have a pivotal of Creative Arts with sections and Sculpture will be established.
of Dance, Music, Drama, This will have its roots be serviced initially by five Centre Cultural the National of the nation, rural areas.

Of course, and will role in this exercise.

There will be facilities at the National will be made of the various and rural centres forms native for res�arch to Guyana and studies into culture, and its peoples, of our people will mirror and represent goals.

Guyanese, from all communities peculiarly and arising and walks of life.
out of the total experiences Our art forms must and our national history, victories and aspirations and The work of the Institute, like that of the National linked with our school system so that also the new generation closely Guyanese itself in art forms, and have the requisite techniques .

from that system, emerging Service, will be of of expressing will have the opportunity in the guidance use of the necessary and the ex�rience of recent years, especially since These must be harnessed.
that there are a wealth of talent and great Our music and dance -'"' so must also our literature, our past and point to our future; have revealed among our people.

CARIFESTA Independence, potential must portray painting Guyana's and our sculpture total development.

.
.

In fact all of our art forms must contribute our to Special attention A strong and determined people in sporting many of our sports and expert training, rural, for young people will be paid by my Government will be made to involve effort to the field of sport.

the mass of our which has made activities an elitist will be made available of their choice.

The imbalance exercise throughout the country, urban and and adult citizens.

will be corrected.
will be corrected.

Facilities, equipment Such a programme will bring together them from the divisive emancipating exercises, in national and unproductive all influence school, status.

office factory, we shall be creatin g a of national to making a success By this means, through in field and nation adapted Guyanese, of differences home and community, healthy, development.
well oriented of race and alleged social without A nation and nationall Guyana must keep pace with its own high international political at home.

progress and match and accelerate activities seriously In the field of culture is not a real nation.

emphasised, y supported, and sporting reputation, economic cultural and sport 4 My Government's education programme is, also, of course, of vital consequence priorities.

to the eventual and successful implementation of development Both the nation's· needs.
To tt\is end, programmes teachers and pupils will be trained to serve their programmes for our schools, education are being radically for changed to reduce the who remain unprepared for and uncommitted to service country's youth and for technical numbers of citizens to the nation.

Supplementary our own, as distinct commitments material, reading from other people's with content history, and meaning and relevant to all our schools.
pertinent to our future and priorities, is now available to The Advisory Board of Technical An important at all levels.

training within ·the National technical primarily equip our youth with technical support the development of the nation.

skills, Education innovation, will not co-ordinate will be the provision, designed that will to of behaviour, Service Scheme, of experience and patterns The spirit imagination projects, fundamental ourselves.
of self-reliance, which has pervaded the nation and caught the of the people, the tremendous the increasing commitment to our reaching our development efforts to the co-operative in community way of life, are all goals which we have set self-help We are, as a result, at a point in our history now, where we can look forward with renewed confidence and full participation, of the nation.
destiny way ahead is founded on the will and co-operation in every sense, of the people in the economic is fully' conscious My Government of unemployment, life and of the fact that our to the disappearance of the people.

It has been the magnificent response far, and so rapidly, along the road to economic national development economic independence of the promise, fulfilment willingness improvement of The foundations is real, but we must, as a people, of life of the nation.
the quality to sacrifice in the interest of development, understand that the and our and for the is dependent upon our determination, of the people which has led us so independence, have been laid, the promise of and full scale Every.

individual, have a role.

An extraordinary have set for ourselves, is not merely that of Government, are to be achieved.

but of all.
but of all.

every organisation, every sector of the economy will effort will have to be made if the targets we The responsibility for development We must determine which in the majority opportunity, unsuitable economically development of the nation and people.
disadvantage to root out by one means or another, to neglect, of cases are traceable and the problems faced or no training, absence of the social ills d. These ills are a severe impediment by the to true 5 As we move to feed, clothe and house ourselves as we move to the goal of economic unemployment, Government's nation whose citizens only how to make a living, commitment is to ensure a vibrant, in the national are all involver!

but also how to live together.


, as we move to abolish prosperity, healthy, proud Guyanese tasks and who know, not my October, 1973 6