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Let’s test Article 13 – LGE and a referendum to decide cash payout on one ballot
DEAR EDITOR,
Since Professor Thomas opined that a portion of the expected oil wealth should be shared in the form of cash payouts to households, the debate on this issue has shown no sign of abating. It will not abate because it makes sense, in context. The oil resources belong to the people of Guyana and with due respect, they deserve to have some of the proceeds on an annual basis.
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While Thomas suggested cash payouts on a household basis, I would like to suggest that the payouts be on an individual basis to everyone over the age of fifteen. That would ensure a fairer distribution, since poor households normally have more individuals, and it is easier to keep track of individuals rather than households.
While most of the commentators have given their support, the political class has condemned the suggestion. The day after Thomas’ speech, Nigel Hughes said it would cause problems in political campaigns. You cannot fool a ten-year-old that a political party is handing out money if they are told that the yearly handout their dad receives comes from our oil resources – Nigel’s suggestion was an insult to the intelligence of the voting public.
Minister Jordan does not like the idea. He prefers spending on social programmes. Anil Nandlall thinks that cash payouts will create a society of parasites. What I see, is a society of parasites constituting successive political elites squandering the resources of the country for their personal aggrandizement since independence.
Despite so many commentators had written about cash transfers uplifting the lives of citizens in so many countries, it is reported that Granger has not seen any precedent of cash payout. The man has his ideas – “seeing is believing” has to be one!
We have a glorious opportunity to put Article 13 of our Constitution to work at the upcoming Local Government Elections (LGE). We can have a referendum on the issue at little or no cost by extending the LGE ballot paper for voters to vote for or against a 10% yearly cash payout to citizens from our oil revenues. We all know the results of such a referendum will gross 90% in favour of cash payouts.
Neither the Coalition nor the PPP will support this idea. Not because they lack the political will, but greed has consumed them all. The society of parasites wants it all in their hands! The Libyan dictator (Gaddafi) shared oil monies to his citizens because he felt that, “As long as money is administered by a government body, there would be theft and corruption”.
Will any of our politicians in power or any hoping to get power concur with Gaddafi’s statement? I think not. The fact that neither the Coalition nor the Opposition will support a referendum on the issue of cash transfers of oil revenues to the people, tells how distant our Constitution is from the hearts of the people.
The commercial banks will never support cash payouts to citizens too – their belief is that any monies a citizen needs for however minute an investment must be borrowed from them so that they can make profits as interest. That is the quintessential reason the Coalition never gave a thought to instituting its campaign promise of a farmers’ bank. The Coalition, like the PPP, chooses to act in collusion with the banking sector and forget about its promises. Bankers will never see cash payouts to citizens as a source for larger investments in the future by which much more profits could be made.
A lack of jobs, low wages and high cost of living have pervaded our country since independence. They are the contributory factors of poverty. Sociologists have always asserted that these factors are intricately linked to the moral decay of society (crime, suicide, domestic violence and substance abuse). Our political leaders have never spoken of this intricate link since independence. Mentioning that link would have been a confession of their failure to better the lives of the citizens.
Now that one of our natural resources (oil) is about to present an opportunity to offer some redress to the moral decay of society by affording some sort of cash payout to the citizenry, they should not either. But they will. They are aware that wherever the “resource curse” strikes, the politicians in power are the ones who get wealthy and they crave that.
Spending all the oil revenues on infrastructure and savings for future generations while joblessness and poverty prevail would be the resource curse in reality.
Rudolph Singh
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