(A column by Transparency Institute Guyana Inc)
Recently, TIGI received a feral blast which is probably the best descriptor given that we have some of the same players from a previous era making similar objections to criticism as when Dr. Luncheon treated us to an object lesson in the use of that term. At that time it was against the American Ambassador.
This time it comes on the heels of criticism of TIGI from VP Jagdeo.
Good relationship with the GOG
Let us be clear from the outset. We do not know which part of the Government of Guyana (GOG) is attacking us as part of the civil society group it finds such a source of irritation. There is a GOG with which we have a quite cordial relationship. This GOG invites us to its consultations and other activities and we respond and attend when we can. We have received invitations from Ms Gail Teixeira, VP Jagdeo and others up to recently.
TIGI will continue to regard our relationship with this GOG as a fruitful one. We were included by GOG in its consultations. We were on Mr. Shyam Nokta’s meeting on the draft local content policy when we made strong representation for insurance and note that insurance has been included on the local content list. We were invited by VP Jagdeo on the forest management consultations and accepted though we were unable to attend.
The trouble is the GOG seems to take on a left brain/right brain schizoid personality. We first noticed this when VP Jagdeo included TIGI for special mention in connection with the Corruption Perceptions Index. TIGI stands by what TI published. But we are not responsible for VP Jagdeo’s or Vice News’ (whoever they are) misinterpretation of the report.
CPI 2021 report was of a congratulatory nature
Believe it or not, the TI report on Guyana and TIGI’s commentary were intended to be of a congratulatory nature. Apparently, no one including the VP himself understood that, although we sent the same press release to all the press media including the Guyana Chronicle. Otherwise, he would have rejected Vice News’ interpretation forthwith. So, how could Guyana drop 2 points in the index and the report be positive? The answer is that those 2 points were not statistically significant. Hence the TI report said “Guyana was at the top of a list of countries that were consistent in showing improvement over the past 5 years” though it remained within the bottom group. That would have included both parties’ period in government.
It may be that whatever was operating in our readers’ heads blocked their minds to that optimistic interpretation. It may well be that the press and others knew of current issues under the surface that could lend a lie to any positive report. We would not be surprised. We receive reports all the time. But those issues, if they show up in the CPI, will affect the perceptions report for 2022, not 2021.
Too high an honour
Let us now direct our attention to the left brain as it appears that the COWmen (the Council of Wise Men – the ones responsible for propaganda , the ones fond of asking “where were you when?” have infiltrated President Ali’s speech-writing team. TIGI features prominently along with the GHRA. We do not deserve such high honour. We certainly do not seek to be in as illustrious company as the GHRA. Imagine, the GHRA which together with the Catholic Standard, has been in the fight for democracy before many of the current politicians were born being accused of not speaking out. Now it is our turn to ask. Where were these people when the GHRA was in the fight – a life and death struggle for democracy in the 1980’s? Some of them are from organisations that simply did not have the spine in those murderous times, even if they had the political consciousness. Others who dare to question the GHRA were not yet born. TIGI suggests that each time the question of “Where were you when…?” crosses their minds, that they direct the questions to themselves. TIGI suspects that what the GHRA has forgotten by way of civil activism many have not yet learnt.
Compared to those times, the elections imbroglio of 2020 was a shouting match. Could it be that some people are so bereft of heroes that they promote this recent imbroglio in order to elevate their role?
We can imagine that government might find us a nuisance but we certainly do not expect high officials of government to actually claim that our objections to their breaking the law, or setting the system up in such a way as to thwart the very purpose of the law, is motivated by antipathy to the government. The problem President Ali and his ministers have is not with civil society. It is with the Constitution of Guyana. So, when they utter these feral blasts, they are really blaming the messenger.
Rule of Flaw
They claim that some people did not speak out when the elections were being hijacked and that it took others to restore the rule of law. Surely the government knows what rule of law means? It cannot be that the Caribbean and foreign governments helped Guyana to restore a part of the rule of law, the only part that the GOG is interested in. It could not be that they felt that as long as the country had elections declared that nothing else mattered after. It seems that that is what this part of the GOG – at least the left brain – expects. Civil society is only the messenger who tells the country that there are signs of danger.
Civil society is not being selective in the least. It is more like the GOG is being selective in the laws of the country with which it wants to comply. That is worse than having no legislation in place concerning certain matters, as it provides the veneer that we are a country of laws, but only the veneer. TIGI will show in an upcoming series of articles that there are critical elements of the Constitution of Guyana that successive governments are ignoring to the detriment of the people.
For example, in the area most open to abuse, the procurement system, there is legislation that is being compromised because the GOG has studiously avoided implementation of mechanisms recommended in audits done by no less an organization than the Organization of American States. These would have addressed flaws in the system. Why is the GOG annoyed with civil society then? Is it that they are saying they must be left alone to maintain the fiction that they are adhering to the procurement legislation? And note well, these procurement weaknesses have survived all governments including the Coalition. What we are is a rule of flaw country, not rule of law.
We have been in the process of assembling our own long list of systems in place only “for the English to see”, as the Brazilian saying goes when translated. And we might add “…for the Americans, and the Canadians, and the Barbadians” not merely the English. That was when the GHRA statement came noting the replacement of Dr. Jadoopat as head of the GYEITI by someone who was closely connected to the Government’s propaganda department in the past. We therefore took the opportunity to add our name to the list of people objecting. The case being made that we are in some sort of unholy plan to attack the government on the same issues because of the joint statement is not valid.
We are no more in collusion with anyone than the government is in collusion with Edward Herman and Noam Chomsky. One of our members noticed an uncanny resemblance to their propaganda “flak” model and the recent government approach to critics.
Anglified Indians
In their clumsy effort to define the enemy they have given an Afro-Guyanese permission to describe our Indo-Guyanese sisters and brothers who criticize the government’s actions as “Anglified Indians.” We wonder what AG Nandlall thinks of this epithet. After all, his English is second to none, unlike that of so many of his colleagues. In fact, it is such an interesting phrase we wonder what Indians think of it. We mean real Indians – not Indo-Guyanese. We hear that they steadfastly reject efforts to make their children taught in any other language but English! Someone who is in contact with Arundhati Roy who won the Booker Prize for literature must ask her views on this term.
It more looks to us like the left brain of the GOG is executing its own plan to frustrate the laws and Constitution of the country and to shout down anyone who complains. They should know that we get members of the private sector complaining about the breaches of proper procurement procedures. But these people refuse to allow their names to be used. They are afraid of victimization.
We end with some direct responses to some issues raised in the criticism.
Funding
TIGI is not funded by anyone but the public for its ongoing operations. We are funded by Open Society for a specific project and this is a matter of public record. The contents of this link provide clearly the purpose and date of the preliminary public engagements. (https://www.stabroeknews.com/2018/11/28/news/guyana/transparency-institute-moves-to-rally-civil-society-for-oil-and-gas-oversight/). Perhaps now the right brain of the GOG can clearly see that the replacement of Dr. Jadoopat would have gone to the core of the reason for the project.
We had asked the Coalition to back a parliamentary subvention. We also asked the PPP then in opposition to back the proposal should it emerge in parliament for a vote. We received a response from neither. We would refuse any subvention that is the grant of a specific political party. We note that Mr. Ralph Ramkarran in his column on Sunday last has floated the same idea. And we wish to assure the right brain of the GOG that it is not the result of a conspiracy between TIGI and him.
We have survived from 2011 to now by the goodwill of the public. It appears that our articles and CPI have together allowed us to punch above our weight. We can serve the public much better with funding and analytical help. For example, no one seems to have noticed that the Constitution of Guyana is a floor plan for a project under construction and not merely a reference document to be consulted only when a fight breaks out between political parties. This constitutional project has remained in a state of arrested development since its birth. TIGI needs to bring these issues to the attention of the public. No one else seems interested in doing so – not even the Bar Association
Yes, we need funding and help. We have some more questions to ask but not of the GOG. We have a certain regional organization to ask whether the Treaty of Chaguaramas envisioned that one country would be able to sign contracts with multinationals that expose the entire region’s people and tourism industry to such high levels of risk without guaranteed compensation. The people of Guyana should be asking them where they have been. Why have they been silent.
We have to ask another what it means that the Treaty was to benefit the ordinary man if the ordinary man cannot find the means to access the benefit. Yes, we need to ask some serious questions, not only of the GOG, but certain regional organizations on which the people’s taxes are spent. But we need help to go faster.
And we are in need of help mainly because the politicians of Guyana have delivered a system which any authoritarian dictatorship, rather than a rule of law country would be proud of. People, including the religious organisations, are simply too afraid to speak up for fear of victimization or exclusion. This is the culture which they have delivered over the decades – both parties!
Size of civil society groups
The ministers’ preoccupation with the size of the groups might be a Freudian indicator of where their interests really lie. This is because, as our good attorney general should be able to advise them, over recent years, the number of people required to open a company was reduced from 2 to 1. We do not know why a one-man outfit may represent his own financial interests but not the interests of the community if he chooses.
The Constitution tells us that groups of ordinary people and “their organizations” have a right and duty to represent their own interests. It does not put a limit on the size of the group. Whether the GHRA or any other organization is a one-man outfit or not is therefore a red herring.
The smallness of numbers reflects the perception of the society that “Who is not with me is against me” is what reigns. These were the words of someone in a very high position in Guyana who some regard as a dictator.
If that is the case then we have not only not made progress but actually gone backwards. It should be noted that the few persons who take the trouble to defend the interests of the population at large are those who are mainly based outside of the country and thus free from the victimization and exclusion that are likely to follow.
We would have retrogressed because nowadays people even in offices refuse to speak on some issues. This is the observation of some of the Caribbean professionals who have visited Guyanese government offices over the years. They say it is notable, as in their country people spoke up all the time.
Surely the GOG cannot be proud of this state of affairs. This is what the political bosses of the country have delivered. As we fall further behind, in danger of becoming the laughing stock of the world instead of the “Singapore of the Caribbean”, the ministers may wish to contemplate this state of affairs in their quiet moments.
Blistering pace
If the blistering pace means the blistering pace of law-breaking then someone has to stand and say no.
Independence of TIGI and Fossil fuels
We notice the government lumping us together us with the environmental movement. We are absolutely at one with them in their struggle for whatever laws are in force to be obeyed. That does not mean that we agree with their position regarding fossil fuels and we have said so privately and publicly. Our position available on our website is that we cannot afford to ignore at least the potential of natural gas to serve as a transition fuel and no government can realistically be expected to avoid its inclusion in a transition policy. The environmental movement and we agree to disagree on that.
Good relationship with the GOG
We will continue to regard this episode as an outburst of the left brain and look forward to the cooperative relationship we have with the right.