THE PROPOSED CONSULTATIONS

May 16, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Why should our political, religious and community leaders rush to participate in the President’s consultations on climate change? Why should they?
The political opposition has for some time now been pressing for a national process to come up with homegrown solutions to deal with the fallout from the global financial crisis.
Yet, despite, the President himself proposing that Guyana should build a firewall to insulate Guyana from this crisis, he is still to set this process in train.
The President has himself admitted that the global financial crisis is the worst financial crisis in history. And it is clear that Guyana has been affected by this crisis. Yet, despite the fact that we are in the midst of a global financial recession, the President is yet to kick start the building of his firewall.
This column has previously suggested that the government did not know where to start. Unless the IMF and World Bank websites produce a blueprint on measures developing countries should adopt to mitigate the effects of the global financial crisis, there is not going to be any building of a firewall. Construction of this firewall has not got off the ground, simply because the government does not know what to do and is waiting for the neo-liberalists to propose a policy menu.
The most important thing now for Guyana, is to build a firewall to try to reduce any possible contagion from the global financial crisis. Any consultation to be held should be on this issue and not on climate change.
It is not that climate change is not important. It is. But far more important is how Guyana should deal with the global financial crisis, rather than what we propose to do deal with climate change.
The global financial crisis has emerged suddenly. Climate change has been taking place for decades now and is not a new concern, even though it is now an urgent concern.
Climate change is important to President Jagdeo. It is now his pet subject and he is travelling all around the world to speak on climate change. He has emerged as one of the leading climate change advocates.
When he leaves the Presidency of Guyana he can be sure that he will obtain many offers to travel and lecture on climate change. Who knows? He may even head some international organisation committed to cutting greenhouse emissions. President Jagdeo therefore has a future in the climate change and environmental lobby.
The Guyanese people on the other hand are worried whether they have a future in Guyana. They see little sign of political or economic imagination. The economy is being run using a standard set of prescriptions. These prescriptions dictate what resources are available and how much should be spent to contain the deficit.
This spending limit then dictates the programs, which are to be implemented.
We may have, for years now, got away with this sort of economic planning in which policies and programmes are built around resources, rather than resources being tailored and mobilised to give effect for policies.
But there will come a time, and that time is fast approaching, when this approach will lead to serious problems.
It is therefore an opportune moment for Guyana to engage in a process of consultations on Guyana’s economy and especially on the problems that are likely to come our way as a result of the global financial crisis.
We have already seen contraction in some sectors. Shipping lines are signaling that there is a decline in exports; one company has laid off workers and others are feeling the squeeze.
Why then are we giving priority towards a consultation on climate change over that of the global financial crisis? Civil society, political, religious and labour leaders should not allow themselves to be used. They should not insist that before the government holds any consultation on climate change, that there should be a national consultation on the global financial crisis.
If the government does not wish to proceed in this way, then the leaders of Guyana should organise their own consultation and present their blueprint to the government.
One of the main problems afflicting the body politic in Guyana is the failure of the opposition and civil society to emerge with alternative policies to the government.
It has been depressing to observe the inability of the opposition in Guyana to propose a menu of measures, which can constitute a firewall to insulate Guyana from what is looming on the horizon.
Yet many of these leaders will rush headlong into the proposed consultations on climate change and not murmur a word of disapproval about the absence of a firewall to reduce the adverse effects of the global financial crisis.

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