I support giving oil money directly to Guyanese

Aug 14, 2018 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I completely agree with Guyana’s distinguished economist Dr. Clive Thomas that a significant part of the nation’s oil revenue should be given directly to each household in Guyana at set times.
There is no question in my mind that such a move will have a lasting and positive impact on the people of Guyana. This will be a powerful incentive that will bring our people’s latent aptitude for thrift, creativity, ingenuity and business sense to full bloom, and enable them to expand their contributions to the country’s sustainable development.
The direct disbursement of oil money to the people will benefit every industry and business in the country because it will increase people’s disposable income and money available for investment. This will cause a tremendous boost in commerce that will stimulate the economy, promote health and wealth, improve the quality of life and generally improve everyone’s state of mind.
As Dr. Thomas indicated, leaving the nation’s oil money solely in the control of politicians will leave the door wide open for human selfishness, greed and lust for power to step in, so only a small set of people will benefit from Guyana’s oil. This must never happen; oil profits must always be shared equitably.
I first had the idea of giving the people direct access to oil revenue a few years ago after Saddam Hussein of Iraq was violently overthrown and the coalition collapsed along with the entire economic structure of the nation. Every ministry, public utility and state resource was plundered by negative elements.
All historical relics were stolen and taken to certain developed countries. Iraq’s oil resources were raided and mismanaged. Amid the chaos and corruption, a most disgraceful group of killers and fighters, called Daesh (Descendants of Genghis Khan) or ISIS, was put in place by powerful countries.
In my opinion, if they had, from the inception, simply given each Iraqi household US$300 to help calm them and create a sense of joy, goodwill and well-being, Iraq would not have been in the economic distress it is in today.
US President Donald Trump said the USA’s war with Iraq was one of the most ridiculous wars he has seen. Even former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton were against the Iraq war because of the destruction it would have caused.
I believe if the Iraqis had been given small sums of money, mere drops of water from the ocean of oil funds, then it would have been a stability factor in Iraq.
In Guyana’s case, whatever government in office gets access to first oil money will have a tremendous amount of money at their disposal.
There will be enough to give every household in Guyana $1M to $2M annually to do as they wish. In anticipation of the oil bonanza, my advice is for Government to revive the disbursement of the “Because We Care” school grant for every child attending school.
The People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPPC) government initiated this grant and it was an extraordinary benefit to poor families. When the current government took power they stopped it.
I am not saying it was wrong or right to stop it; maybe they needed the resources in other areas. What I am suggesting is that the oil revenue will make it affordable again and Government should restart it as soon as possible.
When oil money starts to flow, I strongly believe that Government should give as much of the money to the people directly and as soon as possible, so that they can feel a sense of joy and good will.
Remember, the country does not belong to the politicians or to the government; they were hired by the people to run the country. Sometimes politicians forget that we, the people, own this country.
My advice to the Granger administration, or any government that gains power during our oil boom, is to put things in place and listen to the advice of learned men like Dr. Clive Thomas and listen to the people who elected you to office by giving something to the people directly.

Guyanese do not want any government in the oil production era to tell them about spending oil money for the people’s benefit if the people do not see the benefits for themselves. It is not as if no other countries are successfully giving cash directly to their people from their oil or mineral resources.
I know for a fact that Canada gives a baby bonus and it has proved to be a highly successful initiative. I also saw online that around 35 African countries already transfer cash directly to their poor through smart cards, debit cards, mobile phones, or in person. And this is getting cheaper and safer.
I recommend that interested persons should read the 2016 report of The Overseas Development Institute, the largest analysis of cash transfer programs ever, spanning 15 years of data and 165 studies.
The report shows that cash transfers to the poor tend to produce a consistent reduction in poverty, an increase in work participation. In general, the evidence showed far more positives than negatives.
Furthermore, I believe that if Guyana’s oil revenue goes from the extracting company to Government without passing through the hands of citizens, the people will not be able to scrutinize the expenditure out of these revenues as carefully as they should. This will cause misallocation of public spending, slow growth and poor poverty reduction plans.
That is why I support Dr. Thomas’ proposal that a significant part of the revenues must go directly to citizens, so they can decide how it is spent. The money Government needs for public projects like bridges, roads, medical facilities and schools can come from parts of the oil money. Furthermore, the government needs to reduce the tax burden on the Guyanese people to accelerate commerce and induce local investments while at the same time creating a forum to teach people how to invest their monies by buying shares in large companies, even GPL when it is privatised.
For these reasons, I respectfully disagree with the published viewpoint of Jinnah Rahman who argued against Government giving money directly to people to uplift their lives and advocated giving them high paying jobs. Mr. Rahman is the owner of large plots of land and is an affluent individual.
I do not wish to critique Mr. Rahman but he is obviously out of touch with the needs of the ordinary people of this country. I respect his view but I disagree with him. Not all jobs can be high paying; even if cleaners, labourers etc. are well paid, it is good to give them a gift as the late Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s Jamahiriya did for his people.
Gaddafi was able to use oil profits given directly to citizens, as part of sweeping economic, political and social reforms in Libya through Jamahiriya. Part of the oil revenue went directly to the people and for significant events in their lives, such as when people got married, gave birth etc. Jamahiriya gave them cash gifts.
I recall Gaddafi telling Libya’s General People’s Congress: “The money that we put in the education budget, I say let the Libyans take it…Put it in your pockets and teach your kids as you wish, you take responsibility…As long as money is administered by a government body, there would be theft and corruption”.
I am not going to pretend that Gaddafi was an angel, but I know that after he launched the Jamahiriya initiative there was amazing progress in Libya.
Under the scheme, intensive agriculture developed, a welfare state was established and countless poor Libyans were able to get homes, education and health services for the first time in their lives.
If Guyana goes along this road, there will be challenges, but nothing that we can’t handle. We can put our heads together and work out things like defining a household, deciding the most efficient disbursement system and work out accountability mechanisms and checks and balances to prevent fraud and abuse.
The bottom line is: Dr. Thomas has proposed something extremely good for Guyana that will definitely work if we handle it properly. I support his suggestion one hundred percent.
Roshan Khan Snr.

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