Latest update April 24th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 09, 2014 Editorial
In the past we have had refusals to engage in rolling out initiatives that would be beneficial to the country, but stymied by intransigence and the kind of backward thinking that conveniently uses catch words like sovereignty and nationalism. Now the list of government ministries which are quite content to accept foreign funds for local development projects but are unwilling to share control in their implementation is growing with the recent comments out of the Ministry of Amerindian Affairs on the European Union funded project. What seems to be a bone of contention is the EU’s decision to award a grant of 150,000 Euros to the non-governmental organization, the Amerindian People’s Association as opposed to the pro-government National Toshas Council.
One thing the Guyana government cannot be faulted for is its ability to learn all the wrong things quickly to their own advantage. When the Office of the President (OP) gave the thumbs down on the British Security Reform Programme in 2009, the contention was that the project threatened this country’s sovereignty. The British said that the Guyana government was not interested in the holistic reforms it had requested originally but only on police modernization which was a fundamentally different agenda.
Then we have the government now facilitating the setting up of a Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) office locally after years of vacillating with the excuse that the type of suitable accommodation required by the DEA was not available. The rest as they say is history because obviously the DEA opted not to compromise on the safety of its operatives or its operational integrity. Now we come to the LEAD project, where again we are bombarded with cries of threats to sovereignty by the government. On the one hand, the Americans are saying that all aspects of its governance project were shared with OP and agreed upon by both sides. The government sees bogeys behind every bush and withdraws support to the somewhat unprecedented point of revoking the visa and work permit of the Project Coordinator.
Those of us with no memory impairment might recall when the U.S. decided that it would be returning undesirable Guyanese nationals through deportations and the Guyana government baulked at the prospect. The upshot, a visa ban which would have affected government officials and their relatives, caused all bluster to disappear in a classic backtrack of position, and over 244 deportees were accepted willingly in 2003. There was the understandable reservation that the deportees, who for the most part, had left these shores for the USA many years ago, and therefore were without significant family ties, posed a strain on the social services sector of this country. It would be interesting to find out through the opportunities presented by the Freedom of Information Act if any settlement resources were ever received to assist deportees to live productive lives.
As an aside, the findings of the Private Sector partnership 2010 examination and monitoring of the 911 systems to ensure that it was functioning properly in meeting the needs of users should be made public. There should have been no need to bring in overseas experts to inform us that the system is deficient, since the previous exercise was intended to identify a state of the art medium to long term solution.
One wonders what to make of the government’s position on sovereignty when the conditions accompanying climate financing with particular reference to deforestation levels are examined. It might be a bit facetious to admit that at first glance there appears to be a glaring case of external imposition of conditions which impinge on the sovereign right to self-determination on how to use (misuse if you will) the country’s natural resources. So much for consistency.
On a different note, one wonders whether people have noticed how some foreign-based consultancies prepare the groundwork to accommodate an ongoing engagement in this country’s affairs. A look at some projects would reveal a practice whereby an environment of foreign expertise dependency is created. What happens is that after completing their original assignment, the experts turn around and insert themselves into a process to identify systemic defects which they are aware of, thus creating further employment opportunities while the local expertise is ignored or diminished.
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