Dear Editor,
President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali said, “The people of this country went to a poll, and they have placed their confidence in a president, in a government. Are you saying that after the people have placed that confidence that we don’t have the right or we can’t be trusted to name people on a board?” https://dpi.gov.gy/everything-in-sovereign-wealth-fund-will-have-parliamentary-oversight-president-ali/
The answer is no, I don’t trust the President. He was democratically elected. I can attest to that, having spent months observing an arduous recount last year. But he has demonstrated he does not understand that democracy is hard work. He wants to do the easy thing and govern by fiat. He gets paid for being president, and I don’t begrudge him his pay. As a local Guyanese, I did not get paid to observe the elections, nor do I get paid to criticize his government. I do it out of my civic duty when he lacks the transparency and accountability that he himself says goes with his job.
The President urged critics to move past the habit of negatively characterising persons who embrace the government’s development agenda. But he must consider that criticism only looks like a habit when his government makes a habit of bad decisions. I am one of those who asked that people be consulted about the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) Bill. I fully agree with him that the current NRF Act needs serious amendment. But his government does not have the monopoly of good sense. We have a right to be consulted in such matters, not his government. Article 13 of the Constitution the president swears to uphold says the principal objective of the State, over which he presides, is to provide increasing opportunities for the citizens and their organisations to participate in the management and decision-making processes of the State. So he can’t just eliminate the 22 civic oversight representatives in the Act. What he has to do is empower them, not get rid of them.
They were chosen with consultations, but the previous government betrayed the good intent by only giving the reps observer status and giving all the power to the Minister. The present government wants to choose its own board of directors, essentially keeping all the power to itself, and expects sensible people to keep quiet. The previous government was also elected, and obviously felt the same way, that they should be trusted when they gave all power to their Minister. President Ali has already demonstrated that his government is unwilling to keep all the promises in its election manifesto. The big one was the promise to properly renegotiate the oil deal. The government also cannot be trusted to monitor the oil and gas. They take what the oil companies tell them, not their own people. But it is still not too late to change, Mr. President. Let’s see if you can take advice and give reasons to reasonable people.
Sincerely,
Alfred Bhulai
