The transformation of Guyana from dependency and underdevelopment to development

Jun 13, 2023 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Guyana’s existence in a state of dependency is one of immense struggle and deprivation. It is one marked by hardships and atrocities including colonial domination, brutality, oppression, exploitation, and persistent poverty, followed by externally orchestrated race riots, looting, murder, strikes, and various forms of hostilities and violence. Today, under the PPP/C’s governmental leadership, the country has embarked on a fast-paced course out of dependency towards development and modernization.

While desirable, development and modernization are not achievable in just a few years. Underdevelopment experts and students alike would readily admit that development does not occur or follow a singular uniform path. They would also acknowledge that development does not occur at an even pace along a sequential timeline. That is, starting from a particular historical point of dependency, underdevelopment, and backwardness, and ending with the development of metropolitan type modernity with technologically advanced urban industrial centers. Hence to guard against a disruptive and chaotic societal transformation, the Guyana government needs to be alert to the negative trappings associated with a hastened exit out of dependency – a dependency fashioned by colonials and deeply imbedded in the country’s current institutional structures, its relations of domination and underdevelopment.

Undeniably, the PPP/C government’s policies have helped in improving the daily lives of Guyanese. Yet, such improvements have not deadened many elderly Guyanese recall of decades of oppression and discrimination under Burnham-D’Aguiar’s PNC-UF governance, and shortly thereafter Burnham’s PNC autocratic domination. During these periods, people regularly gathered to protest the harsh discriminatory conditions of an independent Guyana, chanting such phrases as “Lining for soap and butter,” and “Licenses for scarcity and black marketing” to illustrate the absence of daily essentials and severity of deprivation. In addition, plantation laborers found Burnham’s motto “Eat Less, Sleep Less, Work Harder,” insulting especially since they, the majority of working poor, became poorer due to subsistence wages and the high cost of essential food products. Drained physically and emotionally, many turned to the underground market economy to survive. Others legally and illegally sought refuge abroad which resulted in labor shortages and brain drain.

The totality of PNC’s draconian policies drove the country further into underdevelopment as the government seized control over the rice and sugar industries, the mainstays of the country’s economy. The PNC’s orchestration of relations and conditions of hardship and deprivation continued under the Hoyt’s leadership.

In 1992, with its electoral victory and ascent to governmental power, the PPP initiated changes to foster the country’s development. Revival of the sugar and rice industries commenced, and repatriation of Guyanese from abroad encouraged and accommodated. Many repatriates, with their newfound wealth, began to invest in the country which stimulated the stagnated economy towards a course of development. Today, the investments of repatriated Guyanese have visibly contributed to the country’s changing economy and landscape.

With income accrued from the discovery of oil off Guyana’s coastline, the current PPP/C government has undertaken numerous nationwide projects to change the dynamics of underdevelopment placing the country on a course of remarkable development. Investments in infrastructure, education, health, social services, citizens pensions etc., are not only changing the face of the nation but also contributing to improvement in Guyanese standard of living.

As the PPP/C government seek to move the country from dependency and underdevelopment towards development, it appears to be addressing problems associated with internal inequality and unequal development. However, the deep rooted socio-economic and political scars of dependency and underdevelopment cannot be eradicated within a short period, and are likely to influence and impact developmental policies for several years.

Notwithstanding the PPP/C government’s strides in addressing socio-economic and political issues, policy makers need to be attentive and alert to the socio-cultural dynamics of societal transformation. Opposition forces, intent on obstructing, or disrupting developmental changes, would not hesitate in mobilizing discontented segments of Guyana’s culturally and ethnically pluralistic population to foment strife and promote instability- as evidenced in the case of Belladrum’s unrest. Community resistance to developmental policies could also result from the government’s failure to inform residents who perceive proposed changes as a threat to their social-cultural and economic existence – as experienced in the closing of Wales Estate.

Today’s architects of Guyana’s developmental transformation cannot ignore the reality that infrastructural changes alone do bring about societal stability, development, and modernization. They must be cognizant that an ethnically pluralistic Guyana simply cannot be culturally homogenized, or economically developed, simply through the promulgation of government’s policies of modernization.

To promote unity and steer the country from its dependency and underdevelopment to development, active participation of the people in the promulgation and articulation of change polices must be encouraged and accommodated. Inasmuch as change is important to Guyana’s development and modernization, so too the cultural beliefs, practices, and relations of the people who most likely would resist changes that infringe on their customs, values, and beliefs.

For example, the Burnham led PNC government’s initiative of National Service as a prerequisite for continued enrollment at the University of Guyana, and for Civil Service employment, resulted in many Indo Guyanese females withdrawing from the University, and from seeking government employment.

National Services agricultural experimental programs, located primarily within the hinterland regions of Guyana required participants to live and work under harsh conditions similar to that of plantation laborers. Insecure and poorly supervised living arrangements subjected female participants to various types of abuses by males, especially the PNC’s handpicked supervisors who oversaw the programs. In sum, the requirement of national service stymied the preparation of well qualified labor force. Currently, President Irfaan and members of his cabinet seem to be aware of the complexities of Guyana’s transformation from dependency to development and have accommodated to citizens participation in change initiatives- as evidenced in the distribution of house lots and building of homes. To what extent would the PPP/C’s efforts of citizens participation continue? And, would such participation include most areas of development?

The answers are evolving.

Narayan Persaud, PhD.

Professor Emeritus

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• dependency, Development, governmental, Professor Emeritus, violence

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