Dear Editor,
I refer to Lomarsh Roopnarine’s letter in Stabroek News of November 26, 2008 captioned ‘This government has not delivered.’
To say that this government has done nothing for this nation is deceptive and requires some kind of clarification. Look, I am not suggesting that Guyana is a Utopia, but to pronounce on its development, we first have to refer to some sort of baseline for realistic interpretations.
The PPP came into power in 1992 and the transition to democracy was made after 24 years of authoritarianism, when no institution made the government accountable to its people, and there was an age of coercion where the People’s National Congress (PNC) rulers saw no limits to their authority and regulated all social life.
All developing nations strive to become developed. And we have the unusual traditional economic statistics to tell us where we are in this pursuit of higher-level development. Some popular statistical economic indicators are: Gross National Product (GNP), Gross Domestic Product (GDP), balance of payments, foreign exchange reserves, economic growth rate, per capita income, etc. These statistics are necessary, but they do not tell the full story.
The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government in 1992 inherited an external US$2.1B debt (now about US$700M); it took Guyana about 10 years to reach financial viability. And so clearly in the early 1990s, balancing debt service payments and meeting the needs of the poor constituted a great challenge. As a response to the debt crisis, the Government of Guyana successfully mobilized considerable debt relief.
Debt relief freed up funds, channelling services into programmes to help the poor to receive better education, better health services, more access to clean water, and more opportunities to escape poverty. And incidentally, debt relief is not automatic, as good governance and appropriate economic indicators, among others, are important prerequisites for its receipt. And Guyana can boast today of having sound macroeconomic fundamentals.
Today, the education sector has received $19 billion and the government continues to pump enormous sums into education annually because it understands the relationship between education and national development. Prior to 1992, only about a third of Guyana’s children received appropriate secondary education. Guyana’s CXC results rank comparably well with its Caricom counterparts.
In 1992, when the PPP/C acceded to power, there was no national policy on housing. The 1976 PNC administration’s slogan ‘Feed, Clothe and House the Nation’ had minimum impact on national housing needs. Today, over $5 billion was allocated to enhance housing, water and sanitation.
Guyana is a signatory to the Millennium Development Goals declaration which aims to reduce child mortality, improve maternal health and combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. The Ministry of Health has a strategic plan referred to as the National Health Plan (NHP) 2003-2007; and today, the government has allocated $12.1 billion to the health sector with capital expenditure budgeted at $3.3B and current at $8.8B.
According the Bank of Guyana Half Year Report for 2008, “the economy recorded a 3.8 percent GDB growth during the first half of 2008 after achieving a 5.8 percent growth in the corresponding period of 2007. The agriculture, mining, engineering and construction and services sectors were the leading forces for this outturn.” Also the report stated that, “the overall balance of payments at the end of June 2008 improved to a surplus of US$47.6 million from a deficit of US$12.3 million for the corresponding period last year. Higher capital inflows more than offset the impact of the growing current account deficit. The former was due largely to increased foreign direct investments while the latter stemmed from higher merchandise and service imports. Total transactions on the foreign exchange market continued to grow on an account of increased foreign trade. The key monetary aggregates continued to grow with increased economic activity.”
Guyana is a signatory to the ‘Millennium Challenge Corporation,’ a US government corporation designed to work with some of the poorest countries in the world. It is based on the principle that aid is most effective when it reinforces good governance, economic freedom, and investments in people that promote economic growth and the elimination of extreme poverty.
To say that the government does not have the political will or the skills to deliver to the Guyanese people is absurd. The writer’s approach in pronouncing on Guyana’s non-development of Guyana, is painting Guyana with a ‘negative’ broad brush; this kind of painting does not provide the full story.
Government is intent on carrying its developmental messages in every home across the country. Government has a vision of a Guyana without poverty, A Guyana well equipped in trade and commerce, a Guyana committed to the private sector, a Guyana compelling in science and technology, a Guyana that recognizes the technology-economic growth connection, a Guyana with innovative industry, and with health and education for all. Guyana is consolidating its development.
Yours faithfully,
Prem Misir
