Guyana - new Dubai or old oil curse?

Guyana – new Dubai or old oil curse?

Jan 06, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – That Guyana is poised to become the “next Dubai” or the next country to suffer the “oil curse” are divergent projections that are made concurrently by equally divided commentators looking at the same factual scenario. Are the optimists right – or should the pessimistic view to be preferred based on real cases like Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, Angola and Venezuela just across our Western border?
As things stand today, it can pan out either way. Given our fragmented society – where one’s race automatically determines which political party one will support – the stage is set for corruption and general mismanagement to prevail. This is so because the built-in check on opportunities for indiscretions is non-existent where all stakeholders do not share the same fundamental interests. In a setting where the Opposition vigorously opposes every position and initiative the Government takes, irrespective of merit, as is also the case with the incumbent Democrats and the minority Republicans in today’s USA, it becomes easy for corrupt players to operate unmonitored as their own people are focused more on standing by their colleagues regardless, rather than on seeing to it that their colleagues do right for the country.
It could be an entirely different production to behold if we truly become One Guyana whereby everyone will feel that he or she has a stake in the best outcomes for Guyana – rather than for their own race or political party or self, ultimately. We each want the best possible outcomes for ourselves. Is this not more achievable when we can nurture within, the feeling that theoretically every Guyanese has an equal chance of attaining the best outcome for himself – rather than just a 50-50 chance of so doing dependent upon which political party is in power? I would say, yes!
Now is the time to become truly Guyanese in our thinking. Too much is at stake now! As a divided populace we also open ourselves to divide and rule tactics being deployed against us by foreigners for their own benefit. This may come in the guise of incentives to act in corrupt ways with personal avarice rather than patriotic duty being the primary consideration – especially when there is same-party or same-race empathy providing cover. A society fragmented by ethnicity, class, the result of dictatorship or in Guyana’s case race, is a fertile playground for the corrupt – and stands well setup to embrace the “oil curse”.
If all Guyanese should set aside their natural skepticism based upon history, and Afro-Guyanese accept that a change is necessary now and must not be envisaged as possible only when the PNC is in government, then the plain good sense of the President’s declared One Guyana policy outlook expressed repeatedly with visible passion would be embraced. It matters not that this sounds un-Guyanese – which of itself is a shocking thing to state – as it is the correct approach for our leader to take today. Let us go for it! We can have much to gain this way; the “new Dubai” would suit us just fine and is indeed achievable if only we make that collective change of outlook.

Yours truly,
Ronald Bostwick