Dear Editor,
All citizens owe a word of thanks to Guyanese-born attorney, Dr. Vivian Williams. He took the Local Content law that we have and carried it to a place that I, for one, didn’t think about (“Local Content in evil state can inflame tensions fuel, lopsided distribution of wealth -NY Lawyer warns -KN September 28). What Dr. Williams articulated makes for sobering reading. Though said before, I go again: Guyana’s Local Content law is a solid one, a good beginning, with many areas identified on paper for citizens to have their share through participation. The fact that Guyanese were going to benefit from their oil wealth was the equivalent of a sugar rush; it went to the head, since it was all that I was interested in hearing. But our fellow Guyanese resident in the Big Apple pointed to something that should not have escaped the attention of any, except that it did some of us.
Local Content participation will occur, according to law, in such spaces as transportation, insurance, light industry sectors, and the supply of goods and services, in general. It should be recognized that only a few spots in a long list were named, but the picture should register relative to what is now the law for Guyanese to benefit. The reality is where the problem lies, and it is not a small one. In fact, it could be one of the contributors to trouble up the road, which nobody wants to talk about, or hear of, since that interferes with the overwhelmingly bright narratives that blanket the domestic
environment. The reality of Local Content is that a man with a car, or a taxi fleet of two or three vehicles, cannot compete. He may not even qualify to be considered for providing transportation services that proliferate from the influx of foreigners, the steady flow of newcomers, seeking the toehold of a lucrative business opportunity in this oil paradise. Similarly, the man with a small farm or small machine shop business, could very well be too tiny to matter in the Local Content bonanza and with related openings for profit abounding. It would be same story, I assert, for a printery or a food place that is middling in size or, worse yet, the equivalent of a corner shop.
They would not only be outside of the Local Content radar, but as good as not existing. It would be as if the oil is not there, for all that their involvement has come to mean. In this there is considerable danger, which is where I am taking what Dr. Williams put in the public domain. The little people are the bulk of the people, as they usually are. But for all their numbers, and their hungers, they would not feature, for the most part, in the Local Content realm. It is a case of ‘too little to matter’ and ‘too minimal to be a player.’ It follows, therefore, that those taking advantage of Local Content provisions would be those who are equipped with a sufficiency of resources-tangible assets, liquidity, access to credit lines, machinery, and the ability to market themselves-would be the ones to corner the Local Content market, and grab the whole hog for themselves. Comparatively speaking, these fortunate ones would be far fewer in numbers, and with a single result coming. Those who have more get much more, while those who have just a little must be content with that and little else from the Local Content largesse outside their reach.
In half of a nutshell, the gap widens between the rich (poised to be superrich) and the poor, left hanging on the unrewarding edges. Those left out by circumstances look on, see, and hear, with simmering frustrations multiplying, boiling up. This is not encouraging for the long run for anybody. Editor, whether Local Content left behind, or public service workers, or hardship-plagued minimum wagers, this is what I have been speaking about at different times. It is about race and class, and when we put those two alongside each other, they are many times almost inseparable.
At bottom, it is about who has money, who has opportunity to grow out of their state, and about who has both, and those who have what is neither of the two. The attorney in New York went the way of what could ‘inflame tensions.’ We all know what that means in any country, especially this one. Local Content, the law is sound, but what comes from it could shake this society to its core.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
