With the recent discovery of significant hydro carbon resources in Guyana its citizens have been encouraged, particularly by politicians, to believe that their standard of life will substantially improve. Over centuries, capitalism has proven to be the most resilient, flexible and productive system that human kind has invented, but left to itself it will not provide sustained equitable development. The archaic belief in ‘trickledown’ must be counteracted by sensibly directed state intervention if the masses of the people are to equitably benefit from their national patrimony.
A strong local content policy is an important aspect of state policy that must be in place, but given the laissez-faire framework in which it is embedded and the existing location of capital, the outcome is unlikely to lead to equitable development. In a not too dissimilar vein, it is obvious that Guyana needs the help of foreign expertise if it is to make the most of its potentials but this is already leading to an influx of labour and now we are hearing complaints about preference being given to foreigners. (‘GHRA flags discriminatory hiring practices in oil industry:’ SN: 02/11/2020). For whatever reason, no government, particularly of a small poor country, should allow foreign labour to negatively affect the well-being of its people. Guyana’s resources are the patrimony of all its people and their interest should be protected.
The above tendencies and contradictions can only be quelled and put to good use by the implementation of a general policy that focuses upon the development of generational and generic physical and social infrastructure – partly as a legacy for future generations. Coterminous with this policy direction, Guyana urgently needs to implement a comprehensive citizenship policy that among other things takes into consideration the needs and expectations of all its citizens, the resources it could reasonably expect in the next generation or so and the projected foreign labour requirements. Bearing in mind the specific context, as financing gradually becomes available, as others have done, such a citizenship policy should seek to systematically place substantial resources upon programmes that directly benefit citizens.
For example, Kuwait is a huge oil producing country and when a Kuwaiti gets married he gets almost US$20,000 from the prince, only half of which must be paid back on easy terms. Citizens get a monthly food supply that includes 50 kilos of rice, 50 kilos of sugar, oil, tomato sauce, milk, chicken and baby milk if required. Having a child gets you an extra US$165 per month per child until that child gets a job at whatever age. Heath care at the public hospitals is free and if you are so sick and need to seek treatment abroad the state pays for you to travel overseas and for the treatment. Right out of school, students can apply for scholarships to study for their first and then second degrees in approved universities in the US or Canada. Students are given a monthly allowance that converts to more than the monthly salary of a teacher in those countries. The government helps citizens find work and if it cannot find a citizen a job s/he gets about US$650 per month until s/he is employed. If citizens work in the private sector or any non-government job, they earn close to US$3000 per month in addition to their salary.
A few weeks ago we fêted a prince of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) where first class healthcare is free to all and when not available locally, the government pays for advanced treatment abroad that includes the cost of an accompanying family member. Among other things, education is also free to secondary level and the government provides scholarships for bright students for overseas universities, including covering their cost of living. There are various housing grants and free land, and if enlisted in one of the housing programnes, a free home is provided. The Marriage Fund gives generous grants to cover the cost of weddings and there is child allowance. The cost of both electricity and water consumption are heavily subsidised and of negligible cost. Citizens get preferential treatment for public sector and some private sector jobs and generally are paid higher than expatriates. Any foreigner who wants to start a business needs to have a UAE citizen as at least a 51% partner even if the latter makes no financial input. As a result, some Emiratis charge a sponsorship fee for simply lending their name to a business (https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-perks-of-being-a-UAE-citizen).
Partly to maximize the effect of such policies, becoming a citizen of countries that distribute this kind of largesse to its people is not easy: such policies must rest upon a constitutionally defined, broad and differentiated notion of citizenship. Guyana has fairly liberal citizenship requirements: naturalization for example requires that an applicant must have resided in Guyana for 5 out of the last 7 preceding years and for 12 months immediately before making the application. (https://www.refworld.org/docid/492ac7c9c.html).
In Kuwait, if your father is a Kuwaiti you will get citizenship; otherwise one can apply for citizenship if one is legal resident for 20+ years (non-Arab), or 15+ years (Arab), have made a significant contribution to Kuwait, your family was in Kuwait before 1965, you have been married to a Kuwaiti man for 15+ years, your mother is Kuwaiti and your father is either a POW, deceased, or divorced. You must also satisfy all three of the following conditions: know Arabic, have legal work and have not committed a crime, be a Muslim, or convert to Islam for 5 years. https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/docs/ELECTRONIC/83364/91990/F734821664/KWT83364.pdf).When you get citizenship your nationality papers state what category of citizenship you have. Dual citizenship is not tolerated.
Of course, any specific interventions, must be properly contextualized, e.g. Guyana has a relatively large and valued diaspora; is an essential part of the Caribbean Community and not very far in the future hydro carbons are likely to lose their place as the preferred global energy source. They must also be based on the outcomes expected from general development. Indeed, depending as they are mainly upon oil revenues, the above policies have become problematical for even the wealthy oil countries (https://www.bakerinstitute.org /media/files/files/ df77a3f0/krane-subsidies-pomeps.pdf).
Laissez fair capitalism will not bring about equitable development and just as the state has intervened to establish a local content policy to help local capital it should do so to directly help the citizenry to become financially and socially secure. The requirement is a policy that facilitates equitable and inclusive development.
