Drop the Cooperative from the Republic

Feb 23, 2014 Editorial

In the forty-four years since Guyana became a republic this country has undergone many changes, including the transformation from a state in transition to cooperative socialism to that of a heavily subsidized nation.
The simple fact is that the official name “Cooperative Republic of Guyana” is a misnomer. We expect our young children to learn the words of national songs like ‘Let us cooperate for Guyana’, but we do not show them the type of example that they should follow.
From all the available evidence cooperatives have been an abysmal failure; it almost seems as if our leaders have a divine mission to dismantle everything that would remind our people that anything beneficial came out of the former undemocratic era.
A cursory examination of what obtains here will show that the post-Hoyte years are increasingly characterized by what appears to be a deliberate diminution of the cooperative movement.
This is not as if the cooperative concept has not previously been explored and expounded on by various local experts; there seems to be no real interest even from those still resident here to do their part in reviving a dying tradition.
Another glaring example of lack of vision is the absence of a structured cooperative education in the school curriculum. But what adds insult to what surely is an injury is the relegation of the Kuru Kuru Cooperative College to a residential facility of dubious purpose.
We are told that the Department of Cooperatives within the Ministry of Labour regulates more than fifteen types of cooperative societies, but citizens may be forgiven for being unimpressed with the unremarkable performance of the department.
There has been a signal failure to fulfill its mandate so much so that cooperative societies are failing left and right. There are no developmental initiatives to speak of or of which we are aware. The decision to liquidate seems to be the preferred option; no one is asking members what their preference is.
Another form that this professional escapism takes is to simply do nothing in the form of education to sustain members’ interest in their society and as a consequence more victims are added to the list of dismal failures.
It seems as if there is an unwritten policy to remove any initiative which unifies the people the way that the cooperative movement does.
So it is not as surprising as it might in a normally functioning democracy that we have a reduction in school thrift societies resulting in young people unschooled on the importance of saving as against rampant extravagant spending of monies they can ill afford.
Other victim categories of this dereliction of duty in recent times include cooperatives in agriculture, housing, and land just to name a few. The latest Guyana Civil Service Association‘s Durbana Square debacle is another unfortunate manifestation of misperceived officially sanctioned injustices.
Ironically the cooperatives which are surviving as the most vibrant are the financially based cooperative credit unions which are members of the Guyana Cooperative Credit Union League. One does not have to be very perceptive to understand the reason for the level of vibrancy among the membership.
The year 2012 designated “International year for Cooperatives” by the United Nations passed without fanfare and it was if Guyana took time out from its UN membership during that twelve-month period. There were no widespread urging by the Department of Cooperatives to widen its constituent membership.
Indeed that year there were more problems of discontent than one would have thought possible on that auspicious occasion. The nation was treated to either innocuous platitudes with no serious attempt at resolving burning issues, or matters were ignored in the hope that they would die a natural death despite their prominence in the media.
The foregoing should not be seen as a blanket condemnation of the current administration lapse in the matter of cooperatives sustainability. In all fairness we must question, also, the role of the parliamentary opposition, the labour movement, and civil society and their responsibility to contribute to issues of national importance such as the failure of cooperatives in Guyana. Maybe it is time to remove the term ‘Cooperative’ from this nation’s name.

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Drop the Cooperative from the Republic

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