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Guyana's Profile |
Geography
Area : 214,970 sq.
km. (82,980sq. mi.); about the size of Idaho.
Terrain : Coastal Plain, inland highlands,
rain forest, savannah.
Climate : Tropical.
People
Nationality : Noun and Adjective - Guyanese (sing. and pl.)
Population : 800,000(estimate). Annual net
population increase 1.4%, less net migration rate: 2.0%,
equals annual growth rate: -0.6% (all 1992 est.).
Cities : Capital - Georgetown
(pop. 248,000).
Other cities - Linden (pop. 27,000) and New
Amsterdam (18,000).
Ethnic Group : East Indian 51%, African origin
29% mixes 14%, Amerindian 4%, European and
Chinese Origin 2%.
Religions : Christianity 50%, Hinduism 33%, Islam 9%, other 8%.
Health : Infant mortality rate- (1992) 50/1000. Life expectancy - (1992) men 61, women 68.
Work Force : (268,000). Agriculture -33.8%.
Industry and Commerce - 44.5%.
Services -21.7%.
Public Sector Employment - approx. 30%.
Organised Labour -34%
Government
Type : Republic within the Commonwealth
Independence : May 26th, 1966.
Republic : february 23rd, 1970.
Constitution : 1980
Branches : Executive - executive president
Chief of State and Head of Government).
Prime Minister.
Legislative - unicameral National Assembly (53 directly, 12 indirectly
elected
members.
Judicial - Court of Appeal, High Court.
Subdivisions : 10 regions
Political Parties and seats in the National Assembly;
People's Progressive Party (PPP), 36.
People's National Congress (PNC), 26.
Working People's Alliance (WPA), 2.
The United Force (TUF), 1.
Geography
Guyana is bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on the North, Brazil on the South, Suriname on the East and Venezuela on the West. The country is divided into three areas;
People
Guyana's population comprises
five main ethnic groups; East Indians, African, Amerindian, Chinese and
Portugese. Ninety percent of the inhabitants live on the narrow coastal
plain, where population density is more than 115 persons per square kilometer
(380/sq. mile). The population density for Guyana as a whole is less than
four persons per square kilometer of land area. In 1985, the Government
of Guyana opened President's College, the country's first boarding school,
which like the older Queen's College draws its students by nationwide competitive
examination from the top 2% of Guyana's school childeren. Guyana had an
estimate adult literacy rate in 1990 of 95% (those age 15 and over who
have ever attended school.)
Cultural Achievements
Guyana's cultural expressions reflects its separate ethnic contributions and had a regional rather than a universal orientation. A number of its best known novelists have lived abroad, including Edgar Mittelholzer, The Kwayana Family, Jan Carew, Black Midas; Roy Heat, Orealla; and E.R. Braithwaite, To Sir With Love, Another prominent, avant-garde writer is Wilson Harris, The Palace and the Peacock. Among the country's outstanding poets are Martin Carter, Poems of Resistance, and A. J.Seymour, who wrote I Was Born in Georgetown. Denis Williams has gained fame as a painter, novelist, curator, and anthropologist. Philip Moore is well known for his wood sculptures, which show African influence.
History
'Guiana' was the name given the area sighted by Columbus in 1498, comprising modern Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and parts of Brazil and Venezuela. the Dutch settled in Guyana in the late 16th Century, when the Amerindians welcomed them as trading partners. However, colonial government and exploitation of the Amerindians and later of African Slaves followed. Interrupted briefly by the French and British, Dutch control ended when the British became the de facto rulers in 1796. in 1815, the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice were officially ceded to Great Britain at the Congress of Vienna and, in 1831, were consolidated as British Guiana.
Following the abolition of slavery in 1834, thousands of indentured laborers were brought to Guyana to replace the slaves on the sugar cane plantations, primarily from India but also from Portugal and China. The British stopped the practice in 1917. Many of the Afro Guyanese former slaves moved to the towns and became the majority of the urban population, whereas the Indo-Guyanese remained predominantly rural. A scheme in 1862 to bring black workers from the United States was unsuccessful. The small Amerindian population stills live in the communal settlements in the interior.
Peoples drawn these diverse origins have consisted peacefully for the most part. Slave revolts, such as the one in 1763 led by Guyana's national her, Cuffy, demonstrated the desire for basic rights but also a willingness to compromise. Labor disputes in the period following emancipation showed similar characteristics. The development of organized labor was led by H.N Critchlow, the father of local trade unionism. Racial disturbances between East Indians and blacks erupted in 1962-64. However, the basically pacific nature of the Guyanese, contributed to a de-escalation of racial tensions.
Guyanese politics have nevertheless occasionally been turbulent. The first modern political party in Guyana was the People's Progressive Party (PPP), established on January, 1, 1950, its two objectives were independence from the Birtish and "a just socialist society". The PPP won 18 out of 24 seats in the first popular elections permitted by the colonial government in 1953, and Dr. Jagan became leader if the House and Minister of Agriculture in colonial government. Five months later, on October 9, 1953, the Biritish suspended the constitution and landed troops because, they said, the Jagans and the PPP were planning to make Guyana a Communist state. These events led to a split in the PPP,, with Burnham breaking away and founding what eventually became known as the People's National Congress (PNC). Elections were permitted again in 1957 and 1961, and Dr. Jagan's PPP won on both occasions, with 47.5 percent of the vote in 1957 and 42.6 percent in 1961. Dr. Jagan became the first Premier of British Guiana, a position he held for seven years.
At a Constitutional Conference in London in 1963, the British agreed to grant independence to the colony, but only after another election in which proportional representation would be introduced for the first time. It was widely believed that this system would reduce the number of seats won by the PPP and prevent it from obtaining a clear majority in parliament. The December 1964 elections gave the PPP 45.8 percent, the PNC 40.5 percent, and the United Force (TUF), a conservative party, 12.4 prevent. The TUF threw its voted in the legislature to Forbes Burnham, and he became Prime Minister. Independence was achieved in May 1966, and Guyana became a republic on February 23, 1970, the anniversary of the Cuffy slave rebellion. From December 1964 until his death in August 1985, Forbes Burnham ruled Guyana in an increasingly autocratic manner, first as Prime Minister and later, after the adoption of a new constitution in 1980, as Executive President. the PNC increased its parliamentary majority to 66 percent in the 1973 elections and to more than 75 in the 1980 and 1985 elections. However, these elections were viewed, both in Guyana and abroad, as rigged. Human rights and civil liberties were suppressed, and two major political assassinations occurred, the Jesuit priest and journalist Bernard Drake in July 1979 and the distinguished historian and WPA party leader Walter Rodney in June 1980.
Following Burnham's death, Prime Minsiter Hugh Desmond Hoyte acceded to the presidency and was formally elected to that position in the December 1985 national elections. President Hoyte gradually moving from state socialism and one-part control to a market economy and unrestricted of the press assembly.
On October 5, 1992, a new
National Assembly and Regional Councils were elected in the first Guyanese
elections since 1964 to be internationally recognise as free and fair.
The PPP won 53.5 percent of the votes; the PNC, 42.3 Percent; The Working
People's Alliance (WPA), 2.0 percent; and TUF, 1.0 percent. The leader
of the party with the largest vote, Dr. Cheddi B. Jagan, automatically
became president; he was sworn in on October 9, 1992, the 39th anniversary
of the day the British landed troops and suspended the colonial legislature
he led. Former President Hoyte became minority Leader in the National Assembly
in an orderly and peaceful transition. Dr. Jagan appointed a Prime Minister
and a cabinet consisting of 8 Indo Guyanese, 4 Afro Guyanese, and two Guyanese
of Portugese, one of Chinese, and one of the Amerindian decent.
Government
The Government is a hybrid of the Westminister (Parliamentary) and Philadelphia (presidential) systems. Legislative power rests in a unicameral National Assembly. There are 53 members chosen on the basis of proportional representation from national lists named by the political parties. An additional 12 members are elected by regional councils that are elected simultaneously with the National Assembly. The President may dissolve the Assembly and call new elections at any time, but no later than five years from its first sitting; the term of office of the current Assemble therefore must end by December 17, 1997. Executive authority is exercised by the President, who appoints and supervises the Prime Minister and other ministers, and approval by the Assembly is not required. The president is not directly elected; each party presenting a slate of candidates for the Assembly must designate in advance a leader who will become President if that party receives the largest number of votes. Therefore any dissolution of the Assembly and election of a new Assembly can lead to a change in the Assembly majority and consequently a change in the Presidency. Only the Prime Minister is required to be a member of the Assembly; in practice, most other ministers are also member. Those who are not serve as non elected members, which permits them to debate but not to vote.
The Highest judicial body is the Court of Appeal, headed by a Chancellor of the Judiciary. The second level is the High Court, presided over by a Chief Justice. The Chancellor and the Chief Justice are appointed by the President.
For administrative purposes,
Guyana is divided into 10 regions, each headed by a chairman who presided
over a Regional Democratic Council. Local communities are administered
by village or city councils.
Foreign Relations
After independance in 1966,
Guyana sought an influential role in international affairs, particularly
among Thirs World and nonaligned nations. It served twice on the UN Security
Council (1975-76) and (1982-83). Former Vice Presedent, Deputy Prime Minister,
and Attorney General Mohamed Shabuddeen was elected to a 9 year term on
the International Court of Justice in 1087. Guyana's Ambassador to the
United Nations, Rudy Insanally, is unopposed fir ekevtuibs to the Presidency
of the UN General Assenbly in September 1993.
Guyana has diplomatic relations with a wide
range of nations. Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Cuba, North Korea, Russia,
Suriname, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Venezuela maintain
diplomatic missions in Georgetown. Several other nations, such as France,
Germany and Japan, retain honorary consults there. The European Community
(EC), the Inter- American Bank (IADB), the UN Development Program (UNDP),
and the World Health Organization (WHO) also have offices in Georgetown.
In June 1993 the Organization of American States (OAS), which Guyana joined
in 1991, announced plans to open an office there before the end of the
year.
Guyana is a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which is head quartered in Georgetown. It also is a member if the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). Guyana strongly supports the concept of regional integration and is currently discussing increased ties to Trinidad and Barbados. It played an important role in the founding of CARICOM, but its status as by far as the organization's poorest member limits its ability to exert leadership in regional activities. Both the Hoyte and Jagan Administrations have sought to keep Guyanese foreign policy in close alignment with the consensus if CARICOM members, especially in voting in the UN, OAS and other international organizations.
Since ratifying in April 1993 the 1988 Vienna Convention on illicit traffic in narcotic drugs Guyana has been a member if all the major international agreements for co-operation against narcotics trafficking and it co-operates with U.S. law enforcement agencies.
Two neighbors have long standing territorial disputes with Guyana. Since the 19th Century, Venezuela has claimed all of Guyana West of the Essequibo River, 62% of Guyana's territory. At a meeting in Geneva in 1966, the two countries agreed to receive recommendations from a representative of the UN secretary General's representative are continuing. Neighboring Suriname also claims the territory East of Guyana's New River, a largely uninhabited area of some 15,000 square kilometers (6,000 Square Miles) in South East Guyana. Guyana regards its legal title to all of its territory as sound.
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