WILL THE NEXT PRESIDENT REVIEW THE CONTROVERSIAL DEALS?

Feb 28, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Guyanese should pay keen attention to two important developments this past week. Both of these took place outside of our borders.
The first was in Thailand, where that country’s courts decided that US$1.4B in assets belonging to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra were illegally obtained.
The Courts found that the former Prime Minister had abused his powers in allowing his companies to benefit from government policy.
They held, for example, that he used his powers so that one of his telecommunication firms could benefit, allowing him to earn from the shares he held.
The former Prime Minister and his supporters disagree with the ruling.
While in Guyana, there is no hard evidence to suggest that any member of the ruling administration has benefitted as a result of its policies, there are concerns that the present policies of the administration, which are part of the neo-liberal model of development, have disproportionately benefitted a small group of persons.
In Guyana, there has been controversial awarding of contracts, privatizations and the use of tax holidays.
Most critics of the government have tended to concentrate their efforts at assailing the administration and have failed to examine just who are the persons that benefit the most from the policies of the government.
In a poor country like Guyana there are bound to be concerns as to who benefits from government policies.
The government would like to claim that under its stewardship, the economy has benefitted everyone.
However, there is still that deep concern that a small group seems to be enjoying significant benefits.
A new PPP administration is likely to emerge within the next two years.
This administration will most likely be headed by a new President. And there is going to be immediate pressure on whoever is appointed President to investigate the relative share of benefits under the economic model that has been pursued over the past years.
There is also likely to be demands for an investigation into a number of deals and contracts that have been inked.
This is likely to place the new President in direct confrontation with the powerful economic class and that particular segment of that class that has enjoyed great fortunes.
Since this economic class is also believed to be a key contributor to the fund-raisers of the ruling party, the question that is uppermost is whether the new PPP administration is likely to review most of the controversial deals that have been made, even though these deals may for all intents and purposes be legally binding.
There is going to be intense pressure to reverse certain trends since a small group of businesses in Guyana are reaping tremendous rewards under the present system.
While it may be difficult to annul these deals, the persons who were behind these decisions can be held answerable.
The second development of interest in the news this past week has been the rejection by the Colombia Courts of a law which would have facilitated a referendum to allow for a third term for the President Uribe of Columbia.
The actual grounds for the Court’s ruling are not yet clear but it is understood that the Court held that there were aspects of the referendum law that was against the spirit of democracy.
As the Colombian example illustrates, the movement towards the dismantling of term limits is not restricted to leftist regimes.
President Uribe is pro- America and conservative, yet there was a move to remove term limits so that he could serve a third term, a development which shows that throughout Latin America there is a growing number of persons who see these limits as impeding progress.
The defeat of this law has great implications for Guyana where outside of a political deal, the only way for term limits to be removed would be for a referendum to be held and this would, like in the case of Colombia, require a referenda law.
This is why Guyanese must follow closely the logic that was used by the judges in Colombia in overturning such a law in that country.
If a similar logic holds, it could be another nail in the coffin of those advocating an end to term limits in Guyana, and this could worry the powerful group of businessmen who have done so well under the current administration and who may not wish a change of guard at this time or in the near future.

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WILL THE NEXT PRESIDENT REVIEW THE CONTROVERSIAL DEALS?

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