Guyana needs a government that can focus like a laser beam on growing the economy

Sep 14, 2015 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I have been much perturbed about these SOCIAL COHESION stories that fill up the papers in the last few days. What is it? Surely it is not something edible. OK, ok, it has to do with the races – Indians and Africans – to get them to cohere. But, as a society, how do we get them to cohere? Do we lay down laws to force them to cohere, do we lay down quotas like 50% Indians and 50% Africans for the police force, Civil Service etc?
SINGAPORE is a model society today. In the 1960’s the races in that country fought each other in violent race riots. Today race riots are unheard of, a thing of the past. How was it achieved? Here are two views, commenting on the same event.
(1) Last week Fareed Zakaria on CNN, said integration became the law and practice of the land. Each housing subdivision, school and factory must practice integration. You cannot have one race predominate in the factory, school or housing sub-division. What made this policy acceptable? Everyone found a good house, good school, good job. If everyone is happy, why would they want to riot against another race group?
(2) President Julius  Nyerere of Tanzania in the 1980’s on PBS said of Singapore (to paraphrase):
‘Riots and racial discrimination are the result of underdevelopment – the failure of nations to grow their economies. In such a situation there are not enough jobs or houses to go around. And, the govt. in power will feel the need to give those jobs and houses to their supporters’. In Singapore today, Nyerere said, there are one and a half or two jobs for every citizen; and good housing, good schools and good health services’. And, all the problems of racial discrimination went away without anyone discussing, or arbitrating on it. Conclusion: Concentrate on growing the economy. And, don’t throw the rule of law out of the window.
Guyana’s economy is barely growing. (It is probably slipping into a recession as I write this). No one there really understands basic economics. Paddy is exported and milled into rice outside Guyana. Nine Chinese companies are doing logging and exporting raw logs. Value-added benefits accrue to that other country. Is that a model for development? In Guyana today, there is hardly a semblance of the rule of law.
Whether it is building a bridge or a hydropower plant, presidents of Guyana are unable to inspire their citizens to rally behind common goals. Both of these projects were shrouded in secrecy. The bridge was built eventually, but the parliament still doesn’t know the details of the bridge’s financial architecture. Details now emerging say a small elite group of investors put up a bare USD2 million out of a total USD40 million investment, but they got all the ownership rights and control the Bridge Authority, BBCI. Meanwhile NIS (govt. pension fund) put up USD 4.8 million in preferred stock (76% of total investment), but got no voting rights on the Bd. of Directors. This Bridge story epitomizes the issues of Guyana which are not about lack of social cohesion, but about cutting deals to favor cronies, corruption and lack of transparency.
Plans for the hydropower plant have been shut down, according to one Minister in the current government. It failed in the previous govt. because of the same issues found in the Bridge project – lack of transparency and corruption, the perceived steering of deals to cronies. Sithe Global was never vetted properly and the parliament of the nation was never given a chance to vote to approve the project.
Guyana is a bifurcated nation, half its people living outside the country. These folks living outside are a great source of funds. They need a leader who can inspire confidence, guarantee law and order and create a business environment of transparency and fair deal. It is my opinion that such a leader would have no trouble raising USD 500 million in a matter of days selling bonds and equity to build a hydropower plant to supply cheap electricity for the nation. These are the same folks whose savings are currently earning .01% interest and less than 4 % annual interest on 5-year CDs. They would be happy to invest in their nation’s power plant. Guyana needs to explore and discover the power of raising investment funds from among Guyanese abroad by selling bonds and equities to do big projects like the hydropower plant. And, I wish to make a personal appeal to the GoG through this medium not to cancel the hydropower project. Amend it, make it work. Raise the seed money. Find a new builder, not Sithe Global or China Railway. It failed in the previous govt. not because of it being unfeasible – but because of lack of lack of transparency and corruption, which together caused the price tag to go from $US 450 million to 600 million to 840 million – and then to one billion dollars
Guyana needs not a Ministry of Social Cohesion. It needs a government that can focus like a laser beam on growing the economy, institute the rule of law and be transparent in all business deals. Guyana should send a dozen of our best students to study in Singapore – study how they conduct their nation’s business, their systems of Governance and also their culture, and bring back the lessons learned and adapt and apply them to help Guyana become a better country.
Mike Persaud

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