Dear Editor,
Here we go again which is why I repeat again that nothing prepares you for Guyana – nothing.
I refer to last Saturday’s Stabroek News article on Minister Edghill’s address to the Multi-Stakeholders Meeting on Guyana’s Labour Needs hosted by the Diaspora Unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Minister Edghill laments the dire need for skills in many areas of our development and how the diaspora must tamp down expectation of high wages. Minister Edghill also noted that Guyana should push for more skills development some of which must come from our school.
Well Minister Edghill, let’s begin with the diaspora. They left Guyana and as you know for multiple reasons one of which is to attain a better life through the opportunities offered in the developed world. It is obvious that some, not all would like to return if they think that some of the opportunities they found elsewhere can be obtained here at a minimum. Let’s not factor in or put contributions to national development too high on their reason for returning. Many would like to return to the nice warm land of their birth and their family and relatives if the conditions are good, plain and simple.
Minister Edghill you even remarked that your government does not know the exact number of skills needed but that shortages keep “popping up” even for that as low as drivers. This of course raises the question of planning and development. Minister Edghill must know that one of the basic studies of an emerging economy, especially like Guyana’s, is to undertake a national assessment of the required skills at all levels needed to meet its needs in both the short and long term.
If we are building roads, bridges, sea defences, power generation and other infrastructure as stated, for future development, then we obviously must be able to tell the Guyanese people how all this will fit together in a master plan. If there is no plan, then the government are the ones to blame for all the components needed to bring it all together and this would require an in-depth study of our human resources and how it plans to meet those needs. Show-window development to display how much and how well we are doing will only satisfy a few who benefit from a little road here and a little road there and little handouts here and there.
Minister Edghill like all his colleagues know that the cost of living in Guyana is extraordinarily high and, in many cases, close to that and even higher in some cases to those where our diaspora resides.
We are where we are because of improper or poor planning. We are reactive to our wants and need which is why shortages of skills keep ”popping up”. We have the money for the first time ever in our history, so we have gone crazy building without a proper plan of how to get there.
I read that next year CARICOM will open up its borders to free movement for all and not just the skilled and semi-skilled as now pertains. If this action by CARICOM becomes the reality, Guyana can expect thousands of skilled and semi-skilled persons giving us a larger pool to fish from. However, if salaries and conditions are not commensurate with expectations then they well not stay too long. Is the government planning to take advantage of this even as they move to develop more home-grown skills?
The government still has this view that the sugar industry is viable and is still pumping our resources into rehabilitating it at a very high cost to us. Why are we not tapping some of those sugar workers, especially the younger ones, and retraining them to meet some of the very skill needs Minister Edghill referred to? Surely, the effect of getting those workers back on the bread line will be met just the same?
Many of the old generation sugar workers toiled tirelessly to educate their children while many of this generation do not want to work in cane fields and sugar factories after seeing what their parents had to endure.
All this highlights the local content law and its shortcomings in a nation short on local content.
A government which does not engage its people at all levels and only seeks their vote to get into office should not complain as Minister Edghill does about shortage of skills.
The conference in question should have more properly examined attractive ways to encourage our diaspora through incentive schemes just as we do for investors. After all they are investors too who are investing their human resources skills. Minister Edghill should not effectively discourage them with remarks that they should not come with the understanding that salaries would be the same as where they came from.
Are there places set up in the diaspora where Guyanese thinking of returning can go to explore the possibilities and conditions here. Is the Government aware that many Guyanese have already taken it on their own to return and explore? Some have come and have no idea where to go or who to speak with. Are we counseling our schools’ students on the types of skills needed and how they can pursue and acquire training to qualify for opportunities in their respective areas of choice.
The days of remaining silent on the issues that are affecting us all are no more, and Ministers should think twice before they talk down to the people, especially in a day and age when everything can be fact checked. Nothing prepares you for Guyana…. nothing
Respectfully,
B.A Ramsay