Continued underdevelopment

Mar 26, 2011 Editorial

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Guyana is known as the land of potential. In every corner of the world where the people know of Guyana they keep talking of its potential; they say that it is a rich country. They also point to its large land mass and small population.
Just two nights ago, a foreign gold exploration company announced that it had found an exceedingly large deposit that spells untold wealth for the country. Prior to this company exploring here in Guyana, there was Omai Gold Mines Limited. The latter extracted so much gold and contributed so heftily to the national coffers that when there was a highly publicized cyanide spill, the government waived some of its safety demands just to get Omai back into the production mode.
There was none more disappointed than the government when Omai packed its bags and left.
But even before the major mining operations people from the various Caribbean islands rushed here to hunt for Guyana’s gold. The country was indeed rich. Brazilians came here with advanced technology and brought even more gold to the surface. They are responsible for Guyana’s increased gold declaration. The country is rich but its’ riches remain underdeveloped.
Omai has left and this new company has come. And while the focus is on gold there is a mad hunt for oil, the thing that greases the wheels of the world and causes. Oil also and invests in many world leaders, untold wealth. Guyana has oil but for some unknown reason, more than four decades after its oil rich neighbours have been able to bring the liquid gold to the surface Guyana is still to do the same.
Minerals apart, Guyana is known for its agricultural potential. At one time it was touted as the breadbasket of the region. It has also been unable to fulfill this potential because its activities remain at the subsistence level.
There is a reason for these happenings and for Guyana’s continued failure to realize its potential. It has to do with political will and the adequate response from the people. Successive governments have failed to make the people realize that whatever is in the land is theirs to develop. There were countries that having recognized their wealth, immediately set about exploiting that wealth. Their governments supported them to the hilt.
For example, with perhaps the largest source of funding at their disposal, Governments would put their money behind the projects in what is now called a public-private partnership. Indeed, this is a new phase of development in Guyana but one that is coming at least four decades too late. It would have seen Guyana supplying the entire Caribbean with at least US$6 billion worth of food—that is the volume of food that the region imports.
People interested in projects, both in the region and farther afield, have requested food in volumes that Guyana was never and still is unable to produce despite the vast land space. And to compound the issue the administrations never seemed interested in having the farmers expand their production to satisfy the international demands.
Perhaps, the administrations have always been anti-rich. They must be afraid of people becoming wealthy and therefore beyond their scope of control. The farmers were never in a position to buy the kind of equipment they needed to expand cultivation and the government was never prepared to invest the equipment that would have helped them develop.
Canning, an important aspect of the agricultural drive was barely attempted. The PNC government, some four decades ago, established small canneries in locations that were said to be the agricultural hive. This was good but there was no electricity to make the canneries viable.
But even as these small steps were being made there were the political conflicts. Opposition political elements sought to get farmers to withhold their production and so prevent the ruling party from progressing. In the long run both country and people suffered that to this day the attempts at production remain backward.
When the rest of the world is progressing Guyana, which is not affected by natural disasters to the extent of some countries, is struggling to break the chains of underdevelopment. And while it is doing so it continues to be hindered by petty and senseless political shenanigans. And there are people stupid enough to realize that they are thwarting their own development.
Why else would people burn existing modes of production and businesses that generate employment? Why would the government not buy up surplus food and either help keep prices stable or create further export markets?
This country continues to exhibit the classic signs of underdevelopment and this is because there is no one to think outside the box—in short, no one thinking big and about the future.

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