Mr Lucas has agreed to serve as a columnist with the Stabroek Business and will be contributing articles on economic financial and development matters.
Principles
The pictures and the news coming out of Guyana about torture in that country are not good and these disclosures force me to inquire if the principles of the United Nations Millennium Declaration apply to Guyana. It is reasonable to ask the question since the administration already has a record of rejecting unpleasant findings of members of the international community. It rejected the UN report on discrimination last year and quite recently, it rejected the offer of assistance from the British Government on security reforms. Given that the international community, in the Millennium Declaration, accepted the “collective responsibility to uphold the principles of human dignity, equality and equity at the global level”, I believe that the principles extend to Guyana because it is part of the international community.
Each other’s Keeper
Guyana made a commitment in 2000, along with 188 other countries of the international community, to pursue what could be described as life-saving and life-changing strategies that would make it possible for Guyanese to achieve a better quality of life and to extend their longevity. At the time that Guyana made the international commitment to respect the rights of its citizens, it was ranked 96th in the Human Development Index (HDI). There was clearly room for improvement. However, in the 2009 report, Guyana was ranked 114th. Instead of improving, Guyana had slipped 18 places in the ranking since 2000, indicating that things have gotten worse and not better for citizens of that country.
In the Millennium Declaration, country commitments to the rights of citizens carry with them, among other things, a shared obligation by each member state to ensure adherence to the rule of law and the right of citizens to live free from fear of violence, oppression or injustice. The countries that signed the declaration, in essence, chose voluntarily to become each other’s keeper.
Footprint
The spending by the Government of Guyana on health, education, housing, water and sanitation, and the policies it adopted over the last nine years, were inspired by its undertaking to meet the Millennium Development Goals. In fact, it is those goals that underpin and inform the development footprint that would be associated with this administration. The administration has been able to make these expenditures with significant financial and technical help from the donor community, despite a questionable human development record.
As members of the donor community track the progress of Guyana towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), I wonder how they feel about the growing evidence that their client partner, the Government of Guyana, seems to be engaging in practices that contradict the letter and spirit of the Millennium Declaration. I think that it is fair to ask the international community, represented by donor nations and organizations in Guyana, if they intend to make good on the commitment that they so fervently expressed in the Millennium Declaration, and, if so, how? The donor community ought to have an interest in the protection and proper application of those principles, and to insist that men, women and children are able to live free from violence and injustice in Guyana. Doing this will ensure that it retains the respect and confidence of the people of Guyana.
Human Survival and Human Dignity
The international community embraced a specific set of goals, each with clearly identifiable targets, to be pursued by each country and to be achieved by 2015. Given its economic situation at the time of the adoption of the Millennium Declaration, Guyana determined that it was best to pursue the millennium goals using a poverty reduction strategy. For Guyana, success meant reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, eradicating hunger and poverty, promoting gender equality, achieving universal primary education, ensuring environmental sustainability and combating HIV/AIDS. These are important components of the millennium initiative and they are also essential to achieving meaningful human development in Guyana. They integrate possible economic opportunity with human survival and human dignity. Thus, in the context of Guyana, the MDGs are about saving lives, protecting citizens from harm and giving the people of Guyana a chance at economic success.
But, it looks as if the administration and its donor partners have missed the link and may have forgotten their commitment of nine years ago. For several years now, Guyanese from various quarters have been complaining about police brutality, torture and death squads. The administration, while pushing its poverty reduction strategy, frequently appear to have given up on its commitment to uphold the rule of law and the principles of human dignity, equality and equity. As if timed to match the signing of the Millennium Declaration, a crime spree erupted in Guyana in 2001 and continued for a protracted period of time. The effects of that crime wave are still being felt today. Several news outlets have reported that an estimated 400 persons, including women and children, lost their lives during this crime wave. News outlets continue to report also that an alarmingly high number of these violent crimes remain unsolved.
Rejection
The events of the period between 2001 and 2007 became a bit clearer with the trials in New York, USA of a confessed drug dealer and his lawyer. Despite the emergence of testimony that was sufficient to secure conviction of the two defendants, the administration resisted calls from the political opposition and civil society in Guyana to see if there was a link between the unsolved crimes and the activities of the confessed drug dealer. The long refusal was hurtful to the family of the victims who are still looking for closure. The long resistance of the administration was not only a rejection of families but also a rejection of the principles of the Millennium Declaration and an affront to donors who have supported its efforts under the millennium initiative. The recent rejection by the administration of the assistance of the British on security reforms is an example of its wanton disregard of the donor community and the safety of its citizens.
Violence against Women
More recently, Guyanese have witnessed an upsurge in the violence against women. As violence against women increased, some sections of the donor community continued to give the administration a passing grade and more money. From this behavior, it does not appear as if donors see a contradiction between the increased spending by the administration and the increasing complaints of the population about torture, physical abuse and inhumane treatment of women. It is inexplicable as to how the HDI of a country could fall so far, so fast and the administration responsible for that decline continues to receive money and praise from donors. The protests of citizens do not matter either. At what point would donors consider the possibility that their money was being used to empower the administration to assault its own citizens, while ignoring the legitimate protestations of civil society and the political opposition?
The answer is not obvious to me but what is clear is there is some evidence to support the divergence of expectations between Guyanese and the donor community. The variables in both the Millennium Development Goals and the Human Development Index about gender, for example, place greater emphasis on the entry of women into positions of power than on the vulnerability of girls, women and children at the hands of friends, spouses, domestic partners and even the law. Until a better way is found to measure the diminution of people’s dignity and greater weight is given to abuse of women in the measurement of gender equality, human development in Guyana will continue to suffer.
Using the preceding as an example, the international community should consider modifying the yardstick by which it measures some aspects of human progress as it proceeds with the implementation of the MDGs.
