Dear Editor,
There are lots of government critics with visions about how Guyana’s oil money should be spent, what is noticeably lacking are visions of improving the lives of Guyanese. During the 2018-2020 electoral campaign, I traveled the length and breadth of this nation and saw so much human need and listened to people from all strata of our society voice their concerns and pressing issues; these issues that affect the daily lives of Guyanese. It will take many multiples of the current oil revenues to provide basics to all Guyanese. Following that milestone, we then have to provide the opportunity for higher standards of living for all. The idea of a Natural Resources Fund (NRF) to ‘save’ oil revenues for ‘future generations’ while our children go without now, is a product of the elitist mindset of David Granger and his visionless cabal.
The NRF has become a political issue and using the money accrued to improve the lives of Guyanese has become almost a no-no if one were to listen to the loudest voices in the room. I abhor the practice of ‘attacking the messenger’ as it more often than not signifies an inability to counter the message; therefore I intend to focus on the content of the Petition presented by Policy Forum Guyana before examining the context.
The petition signed by 62 persons seeks to defer debate on the Natural Resources Fund Bill until “citizens can consider it”. Have Guyana’s citizens not been considering how we should and should not be spending the oil money from the day of discovery to now? A Google search of the term `how should Guyana spend the Oil money’ throws up over 58 million results.
Policy Forum lists all of the consultations held by the Granger administration, labels them “the most complete example of the intent of Article 13 since its introduction” then in the very next breath says “The signatories of the Petition … are conscious that despite these prolonged preparatory activities the resulting Natural Resource Fund Act did not meet expectations of either the current ruling party or a significant cross-section of citizens”. Not a cent of the oil money has been spent to date and the majority of the citizens are in favour of using the money on infrastructure, education and health projects that benefit Guyanese. I fail to see the merit of further consultation as a reason for the delay in the utilization of the Natural Resources Fund.
Had the Petition made specific objections to the proposed amendments in the NRF Bill in plain language, for example, “we object to the number of people on the oversight committee’ or “we would like to elect the fund managers in a national election” then I could see the need for debate, however, the group relies on vague notions “The focus on ‘prosperity’ rather than equity in the Government’s current narrative on fossil fuels leaves intergenerational equity (fairness) to the workings of the free market rather than a matter of legal and political principle” …what balderdash!
Editor, the vision for a developed Guyana will not be accomplished by waiting on the self-proclaimed civil society /Georgetown intelligentsia; 62 people attempting to arrogate the power of elected decision-makers and stall the progress of an entire nation. Instead, I would suggest the solution is to abolish the NRF altogether; put the money into the Consolidated Fund; spend it on the projects and programmes that improve the lives of Guyanese; build the schools, hospitals; roads; water systems; housing schemes, cash grants to the vulnerable, etc that we need now. When these projects are completed and we have an improved standard of life (comparable to the first world) then we can discuss savings; for the meanwhile, let’s get to work using as much of our money as we can; no need for the horse to starve while the grass is growing.
Respectfully,
Robin Singh