Dear Editor,
It has been one week since the BBC aired its ‘Hardtalk’ programme on Thursday, December 3, when President Bharrat Jagdeo was interviewed by Ms Zeinab Badawi in his capacity as Chairman of Caricom. Among the many issues discussed was the potential financing to be provided by Norway to Guyana to assist in the preservation of its forest.
Generally, the Caricom Chairman gave a decent account of himself on matters relating to Caricom. He stuck to the theme of his argument that dealt mainly with the seeming double standards with which the developed world deals with the developing world on a number of issues. He argued that “…there has to be coherency in policy: environmental policy, trade policy and policies to assist the developing world to break the cycle of poverty.” He made clear the Caribbean Community’s disgust with the rhetoric that emanates from the developed world with regard to climate change and sounded a call for more affirmative action to taken by developed countries.
Within that interview, Mr Jagdeo when asked why Guyana should be incentivized for not cutting down its forest told the world that “ …we have for example several companies that want to go into the forest; several Asian companies; we have several proposals to convert the forest into plantations for palm oil, etc. We have to resist those. And the way that we do that is to be incentivized; to create a whole series of low carbon opportunities for our people so they can find alternative employment.”
This begs the question: Have Guyanese been denied real opportunities for development because of the fear that our carbon footprint would be frowned upon by the rest of the world? Guyana has not had any significant form of foreign investment within the last decade and a half. And so to hear that investors are interested in doing serious business with Guyana and have to be placed on hold while vast numbers of the Guyanese population battle the very cycle of poverty alluded to by Mr Jagdeo earlier in the interview, is worrisome.
Mr Jagdeo when asked where the money from Norway would go, indicated that “it would be spent on education, health care, making the economy more ‘climate resilient’… investment in fibre optic cables…” Guyana it seems will finally be making leaps and bounds with regard to ‘development’ with the money it is to receive from Norway. A whole lot it seems is riding on this Norwegian deal.
The moderator quoted the Norwegian Environment and International Development Minister Erik Solheim in relation to his position on corruption. The Minister stated, “There would be robust anti-corruption measures and only when this hurdle is passed would the country [Guyana] be eligible for large-scale payments.” The moderator then asked Mr Jagdeo if he had anti-corruption measures in place. He responded by stating, “ …there is a transparent financial mechanism; we’re working with the World Bank to ensure that happens; that we have a finance transfer mechanism that would be audited at the national level and also subjected to international audit.”
This sounds very good. But too many people in and out of Guyana have lost confidence in President Bharrat Jagdeo and his government on many levels, especially when it comes to financial transparency. The Kingston Hotel Project and Queens Atlantic Investment Inc. (QAII) readily come to mind.
Mr Jagdeo was very optimistic on ‘Hardtalk’ that the deal with Norway would be sealed at Copenhagen when the conference concludes. If we are to go by what he said in the interview, Guyana and Guyanese stand to benefit in ways unimaginable when the big dollars come rolling in from Norway.
However, with Guyana rated among the most corrupt countries in the world it would be very interesting to see how this all plays out should Norway grant us the US$250M as an incentive to preserve our forest.
Let’s all hope that Guyana is not being paid to remain underdeveloped!
The interview ended with Ms Zeinab Badawi asking President Jagdeo if he intended to change the constitution and run for a third term. His response was a categorical ‘no.’ Bharrat Jagdeo has now told the world that he will not be the presidential candidate for the PPP in 2011.
Does the world believe him? I guess we just have to wait and see.
Yours faithfully,
Richard Francois
