This is the second entry in a
series on civil society.
Attempts by umbrella organisation, Policy Forum Guyana (PFG) to generate national discussions on policies influencing the extractive sector and particularly in formatting the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) in a burgeoning oil industry have generated hostility and bewildering reactions by Government towards civil society, says PFG convener Mike McCormack.
“The Parliament could achieve its objectives by the two major political organisations meeting and taking decisions in the interest of citizens. However, members of parliament believe they are accountable only to themselves so they don’t have to listen to individuals and civil society,” McCormack told Sunday Stabroek.
The NRF being new to Guyana, the PFG brought an international expert from India to advise on the process. “This culminated in a proposal to restructure the original NRF act passed by the last government. We objected to the composition and structure and the distribution of powers within that pact and felt with appropriate revision and enactment it could work,” he said.
For the APNU+AFC’s version of the NRF Act, PFG felt that the Ministry of Finance monopolized decision-making and the oversight committee which comprised civic individuals ought to have been selected by civil society itself and not by Government.
For the PPP/C version, the PFG made detailed recommendations to the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and the Ministry of Finance. “So the idea that nobody had said anything about the revised NRF act before Government announced it was going to approve its own version, is not accurate,” McCormack said.
To ensure civil society’s participation in the provisions of the NRF act, he said, PFG sent a petition to the Parliament with the signatures of about 60 individuals representing a wide cross- section of society to pause the approval process which the current administration was going to pass over the Christmas and New Year period.
“The Speaker did not accept the petition for reasons that were never given,” he said.
Although PFG disagreed with the first act rushed through the Parliament and passed by the APNU+AFC government with what it had because it was close to the day of the vote of no-confidence, McCormack said, PFG had the opportunity to comment and organise people around the table.
“Neither the original nor the second version of the act has reflected the opinions of the people other than the parties that were in power,” he said.
Stating that the Government is not practicing politics, he said politics is a process that accommodates and compromises to ensure everyone gets something. “Instead, they confront, they denounce, they vanquish, they ridicule and they threaten.”
He said society needs to understand that the mining industry converts public assets into private wealth, the majority of which disappears from the country once extracted. Guyanese get an eight per cent royalty plus a pittance from gold, a public asset.
“If all the money earned from our natural resources is deposited in the NRF, they go to future generations. All we own is the interest from that fund. Once the NRF builds up which can happen quickly to considerable significance the interest payments are substantial. We argued that a portion of that interest should be a citizens’ dividend and every citizen of Guyana should get a cheque at the start of every year from the interest payments generated from the previous year. Alaska has that system and we feel it is appropriate here. One of the benefits is that every Guyanese will take an immediate interest with what goes on with the fund because they are going to get a cheque.”
Climate crisis
On the need for focus on the climate crisis, he said, there is no debate at the moment locally on the climate and the roles that civil society can play.
“The low carbon strategy is a sales pitch. The monetizing of every natural resource we have and the conditions under which it can be sold is an obsession with prosperity but not with equality or the kind of values of inclusiveness, transparency that would make people feel secured.”
A wide cross-section of Guyanese feel insecure, he said, “because our sense of community is being shredded all the time. How can we create a framework of values that we can all be promoting which government has to heed?”
The omission of young people from decision-making roles in this country is staggering and this generation who in 25 years could be under water is not acknowledged, he said.
He recalled that the PFG wrote to the Office of the Vice President requesting that two young persons who PFG got accepted as part of the Glasgow COP 26, be considered part of the Guyana delegation but got no response in spite of following up with a number of phone calls.
“These are some incidents that led to Government’s behaviour questioning, ‘Who are you?’, ‘Why should we have to respond to some organisations like Policy Forum Guyana?’, ‘Who voted for you?’”, McCormack said.
He added, “That was the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) attitude years ago when they were more Leninist-oriented and the party was the only organisation recognised under Leninism. That time civil society was viewed with suspicion and as being political.”
It appears as though government has retained a part of that culture, he said, “And it seems to me you somehow have to be part of a political party and engaged in Parliament before you are allowed to have an opinion. This is what we are working with at the moment.”
Organisations have the right to freedom of assembly, he said, and people of like minded interest, whether it is elections, road safety, disability or whatever, have a right to do that.
While some organisations are making public statements and are tolerated, he said, “it would be interesting to see if they make any statement which actually challenges the situation or the right to have an opinion. As long as you remain within the framework of focus of what is considered to be acceptable public comment, you probably could be allowed to do it.”
Listing a number of examples of intimidation and being by-passed by government in the consultative process, McCormack related how recently the president of the Guyana Society for the Blind was harassed for expressing his opinion by someone claiming to be a representative of the Department of Public Information (DPI). The individual similarly threatened some elderly religious sisters at an orphanage.
Unprecedented
“That was unprecedented. The person called me for a comment but he never mentioned DPI. He said he was a freelance journalist. This is the extent to which all this indignation by the ruling party is being played out.”
Since its establishment in 2015, PFG has coordinated the civic component that produced the national goals for the 2016 Conference of the Parties (COP 21) for the nationally determined contributions (NDCs) for climate change at the Ministry of Natural Resources’ request after PFG had criticised the APNU+AFC government’s first draft of the NDCs. The civil society groups produced an alternative set of proposals that were discussed at a meeting to determine Guyana’s NDCs.
“The process for producing Guyana’s NDCs was a very participatory activity that included the Private Sector Commission although they are not a member of the PFG. This is significant compared to the situation at the moment.”
The MNR had requested the PFG to identify three people who would get together with Government’s three to iron out Guyana’s final presentation. Following PFG’s presentation, Mc Cormack said there was no need for any negotiations around the NDCs because the government had bought into all that was proposed. The outcome of that meeting became Guyana’s contribution to COP 21. It was printed in a booklet that PFG produced.
“I mentioned that in detail because it was the first major event in which there was an effort to formulate policies by a wide range of civic and business organisations.”
Subsequently, the MNR under the previous government invited the PFG to identify four candidates for the civic component and four alternates to sit on the multi-stakeholders’ committee that runs the Guyana Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (GYEITI).
“I am mentioning this in detail again because of the current situation in which the whole question of the validity or credibility of civil society is in question.”
PFG identified Major General (Ret’d) Joe Singh, former diplomat Rudy Collins and the late Sandra Jones, a human resources specialist to select three candidates and alternates from civil society by a process in which anyone who wanted to be a part of it had to apply stating their reasons and they had to be endorsed by a civic organisation. Singh’s committee selected the initial six people while the Indigenous organisations selected a representative and an alternate.
“Government had four representatives including business and civil society had four including the indigenous community.”
He recalled also when the APNU+AFC government announced that the MNR was extending mining licences in an area where the Demerara and the Essequibo rivers come close together.
“We vigorously protested this move because of the threat of pollution. The MNR had a rapid assessment done which proved our point and the decision was reversed.”
Coming out of that incident, it was found that no single agency was responsible for the country’s fresh waters. PFG did a rapid assessment and found about eight or nine Government agencies having some responsibility but no agency had oversight.
“No one takes responsibility for the pollution of rivers by mining,” he said. All the agencies came together at the PFG office to work out a process that created a system of river guardians involving local communities, particularly Indigenous, along rivers. The river guardians were vested with statutory authority for river protection at the local level.
The Hydrometeorological Service in the Ministry of Agriculture is in theory the leading agency on water because it has rainfall stations across the country, he said.
Policy Forum Guyana is an umbrella body of 18 civil society organisations registered as an incorporated body. The objective of the groups that formed it is to encourage the population to focus on issues of electoral transparency, financial transparency and environmental transparency among others.
“There is no law requiring NGOs to register. Groups may register under the Ministry of Labour as a benefits and burial society if they fall within the cooperatives act and they have to send reports to the ministry. The other option is to become legally incorporated. Not having something that is tailored to the voluntary sector or for civil society means that NGOs are constrained in becoming independent and that is a problem.”
He added, “The non recognition of the voluntary sector by an act of Parliament is a direct consequence of ‘Who are you? Who elected you?”
