A NEW CONTOUR OF GOOD GOVERNANCE IS EMERGING … SLOWLY

Jun 18, 2017 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

By Moses Nagamootoo, Prime Minister

Every time I approach the “Lowtan Turn” at Cotton Tree, West Berbice, I look out involuntarily for a lamp post where, a few years ago, a cardboard poster had been mounted with the slogan: “Down with CorruPPPtion”.

Moses Nagamootoo, Prime Minister

That slogan said it all: the post-Jagan PPP government had become synonymous with corruption. Even committed Jagan loyalists like Ralph Ramkarran and Joey Jagan had accused the then ruling regime of “pervasive corruption”.
It is now two years after those landmark elections in 2015, but many people seem to have forgotten about the quagmire of corruption into which the PPP had sunk our nation.
In 2014, Transparency International (TI) had placed our country near the bottom of the global Corruption Perception ladder, ranking us 136 out of the 175 countries assessed.
Today, we are still crawling out from that dark hole that the PPP had dug and slid us all into, kit and caboodle.
In 2016, the TI index placed Guyana at 108. This only means that we’re beginning to inch our way out of that abyss. The climb is high and fraught with human hurdles, but we’ll continue to fight for our country.
Corruption used to be Guyana’s single biggest human rights violation pre-2015. Moneys that should have benefited the citizenry were diverted into the bottomless pockets of public officials and their cronies. That fence that’s supposed to keep government officials away from the public purse was broken since 2009 when the Chairman of the Integrity Commission resigned.
That pervasive corruption had eaten deep into the sinews of public life by the time Bharrat Jagdeo came to the end of his unbroken 12-year stint as President of this nation. So now, when we hear a jingle begging for his return, I just shrug like my gardener who disdainfully responded: “Bring back who?”

UNBRIDLED POWER
It was the same cloak of corruption and authoritarianism that resulted in the once formidable PPP losing its iron grip on unbridled power at the 2011 polls when it was reduced to a minority government. By May 2015, it had lost its way completely, and its arrogance cost it the government.
It was therefore a reasonable expectation that the multi-party, multi-ethnic Coalition that succeeded the failed regime, would have had to work overtime to change Guyana’s image that we had earned as the Caribbean’s “corruption capital”. The Coalition started at the beginning, and it has only been 24 months. It will take years to effectively exorcise this social cancer, fighting off every disgusting hurdle being thrown up to retard progress.
Fair-minded people will admit that a viable opening has been made for clean, decent business to be conducted. Gone are the ugly sores of mega contracts going to cronies in return for kick-backs. The openly incestuous relationships among the powerful ‘rulers’, the narco-criminals, the phantom killer-squads, money launderers and big-time swindlers have been contained. The business community has received a cleansing but it will take some doing, some time for it to regain financial strength.

OUR OWN JUMBIES
Over the past two years we (Government) have been haunted by our own political jumbies (cases in point the D’Urban Park project and the pharmaceutical bond fiasco). But there were no cover-ups. Explanations were sought and answers were given, repeatedly, including in the National Assembly. I believe that we have collectively learned our lesson, mainly from the onslaught of public criticism.
These lessons inform us that our public will only accept frank and full disclosures. We are constantly reminded that it was the PPP government’s refusal to disclose that had led to a Motion of No Confidence against them after they had spent Billions without parliamentary approval. That was the motion that triggered the prorogation of the 10th Parliament in November 2014. Fresh elections were prematurely called, and the rest, as the saying goes, is history.

GOOD GOVERNANCE
Guyana’s image today is not the same. A new contour of good governance is emerging, perhaps too slowly, but our people are beginning to see evidence of structured and orderly social development everywhere. Georgetown stands out for its scrubbed image, no longer a garbage-infested, flood-prone, unsightly capital city. But no horns yet. There is still much more work to be done.
Though heavily criticized, D’Urban Park that used to be Georgetown’s urban jungle has changed the ambience of the entire ward where now flutters our majestic, giant Golden Arrowhead that’s visible from all approaches. It evokes daily displays of quiet patriotism.
There’s further evidence, some imperceptible, of our renewal. The landscape for a more inclusive, accountable government has been enhanced by the:-
* Holding of local government elections
* Establishment of new towns
* Commissioning of regional, relay radio stations
* Passage of compliant Anti-Money Laundering law, Public Procurement law, and the establishment of a Public Procurement Commission
* Establishment of the Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) multi-stakeholders group to properly manage the proceeds from oil and gas
* Establishment of State Assets Recovery Agency law to secure the people’s properties from unlawful appropriation
* Enactment of reformed Telecommunications law to encourage competition and stimulate modern services
* Financial autonomy of Parliament and the Judiciary which honours the constitutional requirement of separation of powers
* Sparing of no effort to protect Guyana’s land and maritime zones from spurious claims and encroachment

NO SLAPPING OR STRIPPING OF PROTESTERS
In these two years, there have been perhaps more sporadic protests and picketing than in any period in our history. Under our leadership, no protest was broken up by police; no one was slapped or threatened or stripped; no one was arrested or tear-gassed; no one was injured or killed, and the infamous never-worked water cannon is where it should be.
Citizens’ protests are being met with compromise, not stubborn resistance and intransigence. Only an authoritarian state would respond to its people’s concerns with suppression of public dissent and curtailment of press and other freedoms.
The Coalition Government has brought that era to an end, and there it will stay.