Dear Editor,
For us in the Rupununi, the E-Governance project is inescapably linked to the fibre-optic fiasco and the One Laptop Per Family scandals. The misdirection of public funds, so obvious to anyone looking closely, but apparently ignored by those responsible in government, has soured the whole topic and caused cynicism over our elected representatives’ will and capacity to serve all the people’s interests. However it may not be too late to offer a little common sense on the subject; this time it is offered publicly, rather than directly to those on high, who are forgiven for being too busy to even discuss practical suggestions from those outside their inner circles.
E-Governance, as I understand it, amounts to modern transmission of government data between regional centres and Georgetown hubs. Over shorter distances, such as on the Guyana coast, this is relatively easy and economical by upgrading existing electronic links. For the hinterland, in the absence of fibre-optic or copper cabling, the obvious solution is by satellite communications to and from the Regional Headquarters of Regions 1, 7, 8 and 9.
In those regions, Mabaruma, Bartica, Mahdia and Lethem are already served by the phone companies using satellite terminals. In my opinion it should be possible for government to reach a deal to share usage on GT&T and Digicel’s satellite hardware, changing ISP if necessary for requisite security, while the phone companies still used as much bandwidth as they needed for their voice and data services in the local areas. Government business would probably need far less bandwidth than the phone companies, but of a higher grade of security and reliability. Redundancy can be satisfied by using not one but both telcon VSATs in each hub. This solution should be cheaper even in Lethem, where the Regional Administration already owns a satellite station but cannot be allocated the million Guyana dollars per year it would cost for internet service sufficient for official communications.
The phone companies have other satellite terminals in the hinterland, at Santa Rosa, Matthews Ridge, Annai and Aishalton among other centres of population such as Kwakwani, which can be used to facilitate intra-regional communications. In other locations strategic to official data transmission, it would not be prohibitively expensive to establish publicly owned satellite facilities, some extended by terrestrial wireless networks, and provide for their maintenance and use by local personnel.
Those new hubs could serve not only E-Governance but could also bring the many benefits of instant communication to remote local communities. This opens up dreams of educational opportunity, modernisation, participation, inclusion (dare one say social cohesion?), and real local governance beyond political rhetoric, that perhaps we’d better not venture into this time around.
Meanwhile, to focus on the real need for an E-Governance network, for anti-corruption as well as efficiency, let’s be practical and forget the Region 9 fibre-optic mess for now. Can’t we look at other ways, that could even be ready for the new local government establishment, to enhance governance through digital communications? Using existing satcomm infrastructure is only one of several options; perhaps it’s not even viable, given the issues of liberalisation of the telecom sector. But that’s yet another public-interest topic unnecessarily shrouded in secrecy.
I think you will agree, Editor, that encouraging public discussion on this, as on other matters of practical detail, may be a worthwhile step out of the exploitative style which has made local government a mockery these last two decades.
Yours faithfully,
Gordon Forte
