The Government is right

Nov 26, 2008 Peeping Tom

A financial crisis is gripping the world, and in some countries, where the mere mention of certain policies that actually make sense was seen as criminal, there were the critics who said that these policies represented a backward step. They also coined the words “socialism” and “communism” which became bad words at the end of the day.
Any country that practiced a policy of making the general population participate in what was seen as sharing the wealth and ensuring that there was some distribution of that wealth was soundly criticized. The developed world actually introduced a policy of making the countries that practiced these policies feel unwanted.
But sometimes it takes an event to make the world realize that the very policies that the developed countries actually practiced made sense and was not a bad thing. Guyana had moved to control the banking system, thus making money available to the poor, who would have wanted to expand whatever entrepreneurial activities they were pursuing.
Out of the blue, there were reports of the British Government, and even others in Europe, buying large blocks of shares in banks. These shares actually gave the governments controlling interests and placed them in a position that Guyana once was in when the very governments called such measures socialist and communist.
In the United States, there is talk about the Government being engaged in other financial bailouts and making money from the public treasury available to failing entities to prop them up. This was also done by countries like Guyana, and the critics and lending agencies condemned such moves.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) insisted that those who could not survive should be allowed to collapse. In fact, the IMF argued that any country that wanted to borrow money and at the same time could afford to help ailing institutions did not need help. That institution did not see the wisdom in helping the money-making entities, which would actually create jobs for the thousands and which would continue to help boost the public treasury.
There were those among us who joined with the people in the developed world to criticize the policies which saw the Government taking an active interest in private business. They wrote letters, and some accused the Government of nepotism, of helping out its friends.
Today, the very measures that Guyana once adopted have become the order of the day for the critics, and others will follow. At the same time, the rest of the world is sitting and watching.
This time around, President Bharrat Jagdeo told the people of Guyana that they would not feel the brunt of the economic crisis that was gripping the rest of the world, because the local banks and insurance companies had not invested in the failed commercial entities overseas.
The critics then said that the local economy would suffer, nevertheless, because it relied on remittances and on the goodwill of those Guyanese who had migrated but who felt a need to support their relatives here. Such was the conviction of the critics that even people in leadership positions began to believe.
However, the evidence is something else; there appears to be no slowing down of remittances. Guyanese overseas are still helping their local relatives in the same way and at the same levels they did before the so-called financial meltdown. The shipping companies are reporting that commercial goods and even packages destined for the household are coming in at the same level as when there was the economic boom. It speaks a lot for Guyanese perspicacity and resilience, no matter where they live.
It is for this reason that the Government is determined to do the best for the people of Guyana, and to help them at all times, regardless of the critics.
The fact that the Government has made it so much easier for the overseas-based Guyanese to help their relatives here is testimony to the fact Guyana has a caring Government and a Government that always seeks to ensure that its people get the best that there is to offer.
Some measures appear to come at a cost, but in the long run the cost is merely an investment that offers significant returns. So no one should blame the Government when it does those things that seem not to make sense to the uninformed.

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