Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 21, 2018 News
By Leonard Gildarie
I don’t believe that there is a true understanding in Guyana of the power of social media. Everybody becomes a reporter. News is being posted all the time, some unwittingly. Late last week, I called a lawyer friend of mine. I learnt that one of the city’s more recognizable landmark properties has been likely sold to oil concerns.
He was shocked. How did I learn that something was happening?
Facebook, I said. He laughed. It was true. Something was happening, but not the way I imagined.
So we have a people who are so much aware of what is happening. The hinterland (or Bush as some folks would call it) is not so far away anymore. I received a call yesterday morning. The ATMs in Lethem, Region 9, are down, because Digicel is down. Can I help? The complaints were filed also on Facebook.
The social commentators have been moulding Guyana in recent years. Forget about house-to-house campaigns or standing by a street corner yelling on the microphone. Get to the kid on Facebook and see how the story unfolds. They are highly impressionable and serve as ready campaigners.
Newspapers are not going anywhere in a hurry, but we would be blind not to see it is jostling for space.
As I get older, the things that were so important to me years back, like a nice car, home, clothes and money, have started to fade in importance. I yearn for time with my children and family.
I yearn for a good night’s rest. The media world does not allow it.
Instead, I am now looking at my health, careful with what I eat and not being too enthusiastic about drinking and going out.
I worry more about my pension and think about a small home in the country, where a garden is very much present.
The few times that I happened to have stopped by a bar for an infrequent beer, the conversations have always been about politics…what should be and what should not.
So I do have a good sense of what the people are yearning for.
The early general elections of 2015 should always be regarded as a turning point for Guyana.
For the incumbent People’s Progressive Party/Civic, it was a gradual slide from 2011 when they lost the majority in the National Assembly. Accusations of corruption, questionable deals and attacks on independent media all proved too much. They should not have been too surprised.
I have many, many friends – decent people – whom I argue with, demanding reforms.
The PPP now has a huge task of presenting a presidential candidate; that individual will come under intense scrutiny. We do have a large part of the voting population who really don’t care about Jagan and Burnham. The messages therefore will have to be on jobs, tax reductions, better negotiations for our resources with investors, education and health reforms and major changes in the ministries responsible for social programmes – read that as pension.
We also have to tackle security reforms in a very precise, strategic manner.
Our people should never be contented with what we are getting. We have one of the biggest oil finds in decades, but the arguments are that we failed to capitalize and clinch a good deal.
So I was asked by a critic last week, seeing that we seem to have all the answers, what would we do if one of us somehow had the chance to be president for a year.
It is a delicious proposition.
For me, these things are simple.
Absolute power, like the presidency, has to do with lasting legacies. I would like to see schools, better pensions, roads, good deals, programmes for our vulnerable and better relations with the Opposition.
Surely, similar to the US where a conscience vote would see both sides of the House collaborating on key issues, we could find similar stances here.
It is impossible to think that there is nothing here we can find common ground on.
I pointed out three situations which I found admirable.
The President of Tanzania, John Pombe Magufuli, was reported in late September as refusing to take a private jet to New York for the 73rd United Nations General Assembly. Instead, he flew commercial. He said he wanted the monies to be used instead to fix hospitals.
That president made an unannounced visit to the Ministry of Finance on his first day as president. Then he pulled funds intended for Independence Day celebrations and redirected them to anti-cholera operations. He began a shake-up of the Tanzania Port Authority, and extended it to the Tanzania Revenue Authority as he launched a tax collection drive. An audit of the public payroll led to a purge of “ghost workers”.
Earlier this year, well known former Pakistani cricket captain, Imran Khan, became his country’s leader. He is fighting corruption and excesses. He started by refusing to live in the luxurious state house. It was widely reported he placed for auction scores of gas-guzzling luxury vehicles used by legislators.
Across in Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir bin Mohamad, a leader who retired in the 2000s, re-entered politics to fight corruption. He is 93. And he won. He said he wanted two years to clean up corruption. Mahathir is credited in bringing Malaysia into a first world country. He is targeting a former colleague whose excesses and lifestyle divided the country and caused widespread calls for reforms. The reelection of a 93-year-old is enough reason for one to sit up and take notice.
Our legacies are important.
This coalition has not been without its faults – and Kaieteur News to its credit has been constructively critical. The administration is slow in taking decisions. Maybe there is a learning curve.
The people in public offices were largely inherited and at the regional levels, the corruption appears to be very much present. The promises of bringing to justice the previous office holders who were accused of wrongdoing have not gone well.
The prosecutions have seen a number of the cases thrown out, with the administration itself critical of a number of those judicial decisions.
However, there are some good things. A number of boards and constitutional bodies have been appointed and one has to admit they seem to be very independent.
The Public Procurement Commission has referred a contract of a sitting minister to the police.
There were local government elections held and another one is slated for next month.
At the ministries and regional levels, there is more training and disclosures of tightening up of systems to weed out corruption. More persons, despite their standings and connections, are being charged.
My biggest peeve about local government is that the councils appear not to fully understand their roles, despite new laws passed giving them more independence. One election was held and not much headway in implementing those reforms is being seen for a proper assessment to be made.
They have failed to go after persons owing property taxes and the councils appear to be selective in how they choose areas for development in their communities.
So what would I do under the present construct if I was the president?
A meeting with the Opposition Leader has to be the first order of business.
Almost half of this country has voted for the other side. How can I contemplate leaving them out of the decision-making process?
In my humble view, the Opposition Leader will have to be granted a few ministries. Mechanisms will be found to gauge his or her performances. That is what I would describe as inclusionary government.
Education would have to be high priority. We may not have the resources, but it is clear that there is a large disconnect in what is happening in the schools with the curricula and readying of students for the job market. We have oil. We have new technologies. It cannot be that our curriculum is 30-40 years old. Portuguese and Spanish are a must from early, because of our growing interactions with neighbouring countries.
Our technical programmes will have revamped in a hurry. Our security sector has been seeing major improvements. I see more crimes being solved, and though the ball is dropped in a few instances, we have managed to solve some cold cases.
The speedy arrests of suspects, and charges, especially of police officers who allegedly broke the law, cannot also escape notice.
We have to concentrate on continuing to build morale in the police force.
Our army should play a more integral role in building this country, and not just parades and guarding borders. We have brilliant ranks who are engineers, pilots, and administrators.
One of them is even a magistrate now.
At the prisons, there are things happening. But recent events will demand we move faster.
Perhaps my biggest worry has to do with our pensioners. The post offices have stories to tell about pensioners who line up for a few thousands.
The single moms, and court systems to force fathers to pay support, all have to be looked at in a hurry. Who gives $5,000 monthly to look after a child?
Perhaps, my biggest peeve now is the supervisors we hire to look over our contracts.
The contractors on a number of large projects are getting away with murder because of poor supervision and corruption.
Singapore and Malaysia have demanded that their people be involved in every project to help build capacity. It is a form of local content.
You cannot lend me money, bring in your own contractors, get duty free concessions, remit your profits and then leave our local technicians in the dark about what just happened.
Above all, my government would insist that all deals and arrangements be made public for the people to understand what they are getting themselves involved in.
We appear to be moving on the right path of seeking advice from countries that have the know-how and have learnt the hard way. We hold the destiny of this country in our hands. The question is what legacy should we leave? Our leaders have to decide.
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
Apr 19, 2024
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