Changing the narrative and setting the agenda for the 2020 Elections – Part 2

Dec 11, 2017 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I would like to express my appreciation to your newspaper for publishing my letter ‘Changing the narrative and setting the agenda for the 2020 Elections’. I would also like to say thank you to all those persons who called or otherwise encouraged that I explore further the idea of a ‘One Party’ Government from 2020 to 2025 and the concept of ‘creating more value from Guyana’.
In this letter, Part 2, I wish to expound further on these two concepts.
In the previous letter, I stated that the narrative and agenda for the 2020 Elections should be on ‘How can we create more value from our natural resources? How can we create more value from being the only English-speaking country on the South American mainland (in a region with a GDP of US$ 3.9 Trillion and 422 million population)?
How can we create more value from our geographic position (with the ninth largest economy and the fifth largest nation in the world as our neighbour – Brazil)? How can we create more value from our cultural and ethnic diversity (so far we have devalued our diversity)?
Why an investor should chose to invest in Guyana with a 750,000 population instead of in Brazil with 207 million or Nigeria with a 186 million population? One of the reasons should be because we have the potential to become the Singapore of South America.
How can we capitalize on the opportunity to become a strong economic, social and environmental leader in the Caribbean? With the recent spate of disasters from the 2017 hurricane season, there is an excellent opportunity for Guyana, for example, due to its geographic positioning (not being vulnerable as some Caribbean Islands) to become the place that offers stability to the region’.
On the point of the ‘One Party’ Governance, the recommendation is for this Government to be established from 2020 to 2025 to fix this broken country. It should consist of representatives from APNU, AFC, PPP/C as well as technocrats. I would even suggest that the President be a technocrat and the Prime Minister be selected from a political party. Ministers could be selected from the various parties as well as technocrats. An oversight body could be established for accountability purposes.
The primary tasks of the ‘One Party’ Government would be three-fold: To ensure that the constitutional reform process is completed; to develop a joint economic development agenda for the country and to educate and mobilise the citizenry – individuals, institutions and society around achieving the goals of the economic development agenda.
The economic agenda ties in to Guyana becoming the Singapore of South America, which is really the business hub in South America. My suggestion is that we develop economic pillars around which we will build our economic develop policy. In the Guyana context, we can develop on six economic pillars: The Green Economy, Blue economy, Service Economy, Agrarian Society or Agricultural Economy, Oil and Gas Economy and Natural Resources Economy. The current Green Economy concept is not broad enough, it does not capture most of the other areas I have mentioned.
Hence our economic policy will be built around these six pillars which will consist of the various sectors. It is important that we have agreement from all of the political parties that these are the economic pillars upon which we want to develop the country, for the next 20 years perhaps. This is important for investors who want to be assured that the economic direction of the country would not change dramatically if Governments change. It is a part of creating a stable environment to secure investments – foreign and local.
Another important point is that this approach will allow for development in a more comprehensive way. For example, if it is a policy direction that one of the economic pillars is to develop a ‘Service Economy’, then economic activities such as the airport to be built at Lethem, all of the airports for that matter; the ‘deep water harbor’; Tourism; etc. ., will all be a part of it. Therefore while the idea of the airport in Lethem is a great one, it should be a part of a bigger programme to develop the Service Economy.
The people in Region Nine and other parts of the country have to be educated and mobilized around this concept as well as the other five pillars, so that there would be a flow between individual citizens, institutions and the wider society.
So, therefore any investment interest in Guyana would be focused within these six pillars – The Green Economy, Blue economy, Service Economy, Agrarian Society or Agricultural Economy, Oil and Gas Economy and Natural Resources Economy. International aid and financing would also be concentrated on more comprehensive programme of developing these areas.
Why investors should chose Guyana instead of another country? The reason is, as the Singapore of South America, even though we have a 750,000 population, we can provide access to 422 million people and an economy of $3.9 trillion (nominal) and $6.5 trillion (Purchasing Power Parity) in the wider South America.
Finally, Albert Einstein said that ‘insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results’. As a people, we have to eventually come to the understanding that the problem is not with Guyana, it is rather in the construct that we have established to administer over the country.
This construct of voting for one party instead of the other is equivalent to voting one race over the other. We are not matured enough to have two parties, especially in our context. Hopefully, if we chose to go the ‘One Party’ route from 2020 to 2025, with the right systems in place, for e.g. constitutional reform; and a robust economic policy, we will become matured enough to return to the current system of Government and Opposition.
I strongly believe that it will be insane for us to go back to the polls in 2020 and vote the same way we have been voting for 51 years and expect different results.
Yours faithfully,
Audreyanna Thomas

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