Nothing worthwhile can be achieved without the right people in place to convert words into action. Problems are solved by people not millions of dollars. In the wrong hands the shiniest new machinery is like a load of old scrap. All these sayings are clichés but the essence of a cliché is that its truth has become hackneyed through repeatedly proven application. No development plan however beautifully formulated, however well funded, and however persuasively presented has a chance of success without dedicated people to implement it.
The greatest danger Guyana continues to face is that not enough of the right people in the right positions will be available to give any development plan life and meaning. However brilliant the accompanying rhetoric, it will clap no roti if the people aren’t there. The danger takes three forms.
The first danger is contained in the astonishing and deadly exodus of people out of the country. This country is still being inexorably depopulated. I wish absolutely accurate figures could be made available but, even in their absence, who can doubt that the exodus, if illegal is added to legitimate, is still running at thousands of people a year. These include many of the best, most skilled, most experienced, and hardest-working people in the community. This exodus of the best educated and the most skilled Guyanese is certainly among the most serious problems facing the country, yet it hardly seems to be mentioned in major political speeches or press briefings. I cannot understand this.
I cannot understand why this threat to the whole nation is not more discussed in public, and with greater concern, especially as the exodus on the face of it will continue as the numbers abroad who can sponsor those at home goes on increasing. A couple emigrating a few years ago opens the way for a dozen more up the road. Also, the rich, developed countries of America and Canada make no bones about shaping their immigration laws to attract our most skilled and best qualified people at the peak of their work potential while denying entry to the less productive and returning the criminal dregs who have failed.
Understandable self-interest dictates this policy but it drains a poor country like ours of its most precious resource by far. With one hand they give aid, with the other they much more than cancel that benefit.
And remember the devastating fact that people planning to leave have already left in the sense that they have lost a feeling of commitment and wanting to work hard and contribute as they coast towards the Promised Land. The cumulative loss of commitment insidiously slackens the sinews of effort in the nation.
If a trained person is worth his or her weight in gold, which I am sure in a lifetime is a huge underestimate, then for such immigrants, the rich countries should be willing to pay the country of origin, I calculate, approximately US$1 million each. That would be a nice little revenue earner but would, sadly, not solve our problem of skill and brain-power loss.
Secondly, there is the danger that the limited number of skilled, qualified, and industrious people who do remain will increasingly be drawn off from productive and socially useful work into the get-rich-quick economy. This has been happening for a long, long time and will go on happening unless ways are found to reward useful and legitimate work at a much higher level than at present. This is one of the greatest challenges facing the nation.
Thirdly, there is the danger that those who, despite every temptation and every family pressure, stay in the country and remain in productive, socially useful work, will nevertheless transfer their services from the public sector (where they are desperately needed to run essential institutions such as hospitals, schools, ministries, and public agencies) to the private sector where the pay and perquisites tend to be more attractive. This will certainly happen if public remuneration is strictly controlled compared with private pay. The only solution then will be to privatize absolutely everything except the bare bones of general government administration.
It is this tripartite danger – exodus out of the country, exodus into the get-rich-quick economy, and exodus out of the public welfare sector – that is the biggest threat to real economic progress. It is a triple-bladed sword of Damocles hanging over all our heads. It cannot be ignored.
I continue to be surprised how well the phrase used by Sir Jock Campbell, Booker Chairman in the 1950s, is still remembered and quoted: “People are more important than ships, shops, and sugar estates.” He said that in a speech opening the then rehabilitated La Penitence Wharf long years ago. It made sense then. It makes sense now.
