THE PRIVATE SECTOR MUST REDISCOVER ITS BARK

Nov 10, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The private sector has received a rude awakening. They have long deluded themselves into believing that they run things in the State of Guyana; the contemptuous manner, however, in which the opposition parties have dismissed a petition by the private sector, shows that the captains of industry and commerce may have been flattering themselves a bit too much.
The private sector controls eighty per cent of the economy, yet a handful of political leaders could summarily dismiss the expressed concerns of those who dominate the economy of Guyana.
This would seem to contradict the notion that the ruling class has a stranglehold on political power. It would seem also to suggest also that what we have in Guyana is clique rule rather than class rule.
The opposition, however, does not control the government. That control resides in the hands of the ruling party, whose policies are aligned to that of the dominant economic class, which is the class that the private sector represents. Thus what we have is class rule.
How then does one explain the utter disdain and disregard that the opposition parties have shown for the powerful economic class in this country? That reaction can only be explained by the nature of the dominant class which prefers to bend and stoop; to be servile rather than assertive towards the political elite.
Such behaviour was forced upon the private sector years ago by the very party that now commands the opposition benches, and this party understands that the private sector is a toothless poodle and is unable to wield its economic might. It understands that the private sector prefers to wheel and deal rather than assert its economic power.
In the end, though, the private sector gets the last laugh. For years the PNC believed that they had weakened the private sector to the extent that it was a sycophant. They believed that they had reduced this economic elite to an interest group; one that was prepared to give support in exchange for political favours.
The most anti-business regime the Caribbean ever produced was that of the PNC during the period 1973-1992. The PNC had reduced the private sector to a doormat, crippling it. Yet in the run-up to the 1992 elections, leading private sector members rallied to the support of Desmond Hoyte by forming the Committee for the Re-Election of the President (CREEP). The PNC believed that it had the private sector just where it wanted it, eating out of its hands.
Yet, behind the scenes, the same private sector had elements working hand-in-hand for the People’s Progressive Party. After the PPP won the 1992 elections, the private sector switched allegiances and was able to inveigle itself into the arms of the ruling elite.
The PPP government therefore also sees and treats the private sector as its doormat. It has long seen the private sector as a force that could be relied upon to come to the defence of the government.
Indeed, in all of the controversy that has raged over major issues – the Marriott Hotel Project, the Amaila Falls Hydroelectric Project and the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism Bill, the private sector has sided openly and unapologetically with the government, even going to the extent of doing something that it has not done before.
There is a parliamentary convention, one that is underutilised, that allows for interest groups and individuals to petition parliament so as to ensure that legislation is passed that respects the concerns of those making the petition. This in fact is a mechanism that is often used so that private members’ Bills can be tabled.
The private sector in Guyana on Thursday petitioned the National Assembly urging, not the passage of a private members’ Bill, but rather support for a government-tabled Bill, since the private sector believed that its interest may be affected by the non-passage of that Bill.
The opposition parties in the National Assembly unceremoniously dismissed that petition, kicking it and by extension the private sector, into political obscurity. The private sector does not usually like to be treated that way, but the political parties believe that they have nothing to lose by dismissing the concerns of the captains of industry and commerce.
They know that come local government elections, the business community will have two envelopes, one for the government and the other for the opposition parties. The opposition parties believe that no matter how they treat the private sector, the political parties will always be financed by the private sector, because the business community is fearful of a potential backlash if the opposition ever gets into power.
It is time for the private sector to refuse to be treated this way. It is time for them to rediscover their bark and to demonstrate how deadly can be its bite.
 

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