Letter to Call for unity government
Guyana
Caribbean Life, March 13-19, 2020 11
the face of a historically thriving agrarian
and horticultural economy, the Botanical
Gardens, our St Augustine Nurseries,
our Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture,
our Research Facilities at the former
Caroni (1975) Ltd, our cocoa, coconut,
sugar cane, rice, coffee, tonka bean, cashew,
citrus, cattle, small ruminants and
poultry, we waddle; so many waddling
ducks on their way to the malls, fast food
shops, to schools and work. Obesity will
crash our health bill.
We live in a gas-weak, drug-rich economy.
Violent gun crimes are endemic.
Traffic has become pathological. Technocrats
and bureaucrats gape and gasp at
the corruption and malfeasance practised
by their political bosses, and at times
acquiesce in these practices. The people
seem abandoned in their constituencies
to fight the wuthless ringleaders, crooks,
gangsters and bandits, alone.
Dear Guyana, be prudent. Here are
seven points to consider:
1. A culture which produces pathological
politics (for example, one determined
by the exigencies of race rather
than development) will produce an
economy as described above. Such an
economy is weak and is bound to split
under the pressures of global forces, war,
epidemic, intervention, when the citizens
will choose the invading economy (globalization
and trade liberalization) rather
than the Guyanese economy; such as
has happened in Africa, India, the Middle
East, South East Asia and the Americas
historically, a phenomena known as
colonization. Choose therefore a culture
and politics of development, not a racebased
one.
2. Putting your gas and oil economy
in the hands of a select group of technocrats
is undemocratic, and is bound to
fail. This has cost the nation of Trinidad
and Tobago billions of dollars of wasted
financial, economic, social and ecological
assets.
3. Use standard econometric tools
when deciding on tenders, recruitment
and the feasibility of projects. They are
called Cost-Benefit Analyses. Never resort
to nepotism, self-serving rationalizations,
politicized projects.
4. Strengthen your regulatory
regimes, don’t despoil them with political
interventions by the line ministers, particularly
for important state projects;
5. A politicized Judiciary will bleed
Guyana dry;
6. Use your gas and oil returns to
build your development apparatus, connectivity
in water, electricity, food, waste
management, protonics and transport;
and your institutions of health, law, prison,
education, governance, agriculture,
your broadband, 5G technologies.
7. Use your returns to build with
your silica and sea and sun a premier
renewable industry with the Caribbean
and Latin America.
Wayne Kublalsingh
Continued from Page 10
Until the system changes, whoever
wins, Guyana loses.
Compromise
To the leaders of APNU-AFC
and the PPP, we ask you to hold
your heads high and operate with
integrity and humility. We ask that
you find the grace to enter without
delay into talks to establish a
national government based on the
principle of parity. Such negotiations
would necessarily have to be
consistent with the constitution,
but it is entirely possible to envision
a situation, for example, in
which the winner of the 2020 elections
takes the presidency but asks
their prime ministerial candidate
to resign so that someone from the
other major party can be appointed;
and where a collective cabinet can
be appointed.
Such a compromise would also
give greater latitude to MP’s to vote
against the government instead of
following the herd, offering greater
opportunities for accountability
against corruption. This breathing
space can be an opportunity to take
a collective breath, and importantly
provide an opportunity for our
political leaders to work together on
common issues. We do not anticipate
that this will be easy. We call
for it because it is precisely under
such conditions of extreme political
polarisation and mistrust that
the hard but urgent and necessary
work of healing for nation building
is called for.
National spirit
We do not claim originality in our
proposal. The national spirit was
evident in the political approach by
leaders of both the PNC and PPP in
the 1960s, in the face of a threat
of lasting ethnic divisions. Following
the breakdown of constitutional
talks in London in the early 1960s,
the leader of the PNC responded
to the suggestion proposed by the
United Nations anti-colonial committee
for a PPP-PNC coalition to
resolve the conflict, indicating that
he would only agree on the condition
of parity. It was a position that
was not initially favoured by the
PPP but members would later agree,
with no less than the leader of the
PPP becoming one of the foremost
advocates of this position.
This window of opportunity did
not materialise, and over 50 years
later we continue to experience the
effects of that failure. No less of
a visionary approach is demanded
in the current situation, so much
more dangerous and threatening to
our beloved Guyana.
Continued from Page 10
PATIENTS’
CHOICE
RATED & AWARDED BY PATIENTS
SM