To be a competitive society

Jul 11, 2014 Editorial

One of the fundamental weaknesses of our society is the prevalence of unwholesome competition among the people, which undermines virtually all efforts to achieve national development.
According to sociologists, different societies exhibit different degrees of competitiveness, and this has a distinct bearing on how they choose common goals and go about achieving them. Societies range from extremely competitive to extremely cooperative in nature.
Highly competitive societies tend to waste precious time and resources by bickering and fighting. Highly cooperative societies tend to channel their efforts and energies into the activities required to reach their goals.
In competitive societies, benefits primarily extend to persons keen to compete. However, if there is a concerted push for an increasing middle class and a genuine desire to decrease poverty, mechanisms will be adopted to spread the benefits of competition to the people as a whole, including those who are unable or unwilling to compete.
Those who have shown an eagerness to compete in Guyana have invariably achieved greater resources in terms of capital and land. They have assumed a more prominent image as top players in the economy, and as a consequence have been able to attract more in terms of investments and investors.
But in our society, these “winners” have been able to extend their influence beyond their business niche and have delved into politics. They essentially mould policies, and have been able to influence the creation of laws that benefit their business practices. This has caused great discomfort to those who have recognised this anomaly. It is a problem for which there seems no solution.
History is replete with examples of societies forced to increase cooperation and decrease competition in human affairs. Many societies came to depend heavily upon a cooperative attitude and deliberately kept quarreling and fighting among themselves at the absolute minimum.
Guyana faces many modern-day social and economic perils, which everyone knows can only be overcome through the powerful cooperative efforts of its people. Yet the Guyanese people continue to handle their affairs with too much negative aggression and competition and too little genuine cooperation.
There is nothing wrong with wholesome competition. Any society benefits when worthy opponents put their strength and intelligence against each other to influence the outcome of issues and events. But this should take place within an overarching framework of cooperation.
However, in Guyana today competition among the people, especially in the political realm, often seems unnatural and improper. Consequently, huge issues like changing the nation’s Constitution and the holding of much-need Local Government Elections, as well as a few small ones, tend to be bogged down by needlessly aggressive and destructive competition.
When any socio-economic or political issue arises that requires a solution based on compromise, consensus or cooperation, there is a good chance that at least one of Guyana’s warring tribes will find something in it to feel outraged about. Whether the grievances are real or fancied, the aggrieved party usually uses this as an opportunity to stir up enough aggression and vitriol to scuttle hopes of an early, reasonable resolution.
With everything reduced to unhelpful us-against-them competition, moves to resolve crucial issues often degenerate in an atmosphere of open aggression where finding a solution becomes secondary to gaining the upper hand over an opponent. Cooperation flies out the window when combatants exchange unendurable insults and stoop to Machiavellian tactics.
In Guyanese society, the smallest child knows the motivating force of this type of competitiveness: the deepest ethnic fears and anxieties. Until and unless Guyanese find a way to get over the perennial hurdle of ethnic insecurities, little can be done to increase cooperation and reduce negative competition in the nation’s affairs.
If Guyana is to be a competitive society, let the competition be positive and uplifting and not as it is right now — selfish, degrading and destructive.

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