– Jagdeo tells civil society groups
Saying the region needs to resist playing to outside interests, President Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday urged civil society leaders to stay focused on the immediate threats like climate change, food security and the underperformance of boys in schools.
At the opening of the Caribbean Development Bank/Inter-American Development Bank Fifth Civil Society Organisations Dialogue, at Buddy’s International Hotel, Jagdeo also said it is important for regional leaders to devolve political power to regional institutions to accelerate the pace of the regional integration movement. The dialogue is being held under the theme, “Strengthening Partnerships for Good Governance.”
In the feature address, Jagdeo did not stick to the script, saying he wanted to be as controversial as possible. Using his own experience in the decision-making process, he noted that where policy makers have limited interaction with civil society stakeholders, there is little understanding of the conflicting perspectives. But more worrying, he added, is a tendency where in dealing with small issues, stakeholders lose sight of larger challenges that confront the region. “These are challenges that we face together,” he declared.
Jagdeo said climate change will affect coastal territories as well as islands in different but equally devastating ways. Food security looms large as a threat and he noted that the spike in food prices earlier in the year demonstrated the vulnerability of the region. He blamed the situation on complacency of policy makers, who failed to realise how big a threat food security is to the region. Jagdeo warned that forecasts project that by 2050 the demand for food will double with an additional three billion people added to the world’s population, while arable lands are shrinking and water resources are being used up. He said it is critical to focus on the issue now to ensure that the region’s food security can be sustained for the long term. Another challenge that he called a huge problem is the underperformance of boys in schools. Jagdeo said boys are being lost in the school system, which he said would haunt the region in the future. He noted that while girls are excelling at the secondary and tertiary levels, boys are ending up on the streets, easy bait for recruitment into criminal gangs. “Our education system is lagging way behind,” he said, while pointing to the expansion ongoing in other territories. He said while the region has prided itself on producing a large number of intellectuals despite its small size, the education system has become stagnant. “Our education system is losing ground.”
But while Jagdeo accentuated the need for a joint approach to the challenges, he cautioned against being lured into allowing other countries to impose their methods on the region. He said en vogue buzzwords must not be the guiding principles. “Or we will lose sight of our challenges and our unique ways of solving it.”
Jagdeo was also critical of the indices used to gauge good governance, explaining that they inherently discriminate against small, poor nations. He cited the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitive Index, which favours large economies and the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index, where disparate reporting systems are used to rank countries. “We must not feel inferior to any other region who come to lecture to us.”
Jagdeo decried the stance taken by regional leaders on the recent Economic Partnership Agreement signed with the EU, calling it spineless while they are unwilling to devolve political power to regional institutions to give full effect to integration. He said the attitude has hindered the progress of regional integration and noted that a meeting of ministers every three months is no way to run an integration movement.
Jagdeo also boasted of the strides in Guyana’s constitutional reform as evidence of the country’s commitment to good governance. He said that there has been a lot of accusatory discussion that often fails to look at the challenges that the administration has faced, balancing the opening up of the society with bread and butter concerns. He added that the government has not set out to sideline stakeholders and he assured that if there have been omissions or a failure to consult, it was not based on malevolence or a refusal to recognise the role that others play.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Civil Society Advisory Council Ramesh Dookhoo reiterated the importance of the role civil society organisations play in decision making. While observing that a participatory culture has taken root in Guyana, he emphasised the need for civil society groups to adopt a constructive approach over a disruptive one. Further, he said civil society groups need to hold themselves to the same standards that they would expect from the government and he called for them to challenge the status quo of their own institutions. He also called attention to the need to network more among themselves and with other civil society bodies in the Caribbean.
He also welcomed the evolution of parliamentary democracy in the country, while emphasising the need for civil society to take advantage of the access to committees in furtherance of its goals. Dookhoo also described the work of MPs as crucial. In this vein, he said those that fail to perform must be censured.
