Dear Editor,
For these last two days, it would not let me be – that headline “Afro Guyanese need a vision-Aubrey Norton” [Demerara Waves]. I got an inkling of the need for a new, different changed vision and what it should be in another headline attributed to Mr. Aubrey Norton : “Government Priorities Mixed Up: Roads, bridges replace citizen’s welfare.” [Kaieteur News, 21st August, 2024]
Yes, our PPP/C Government has opted as policy to allocate a large share of our budgeted expenditure to infrastructure – roads, bridges; to hinterland trails, airstrips, electrification, internet; infrastructure to bring our intermediate savannahs under cultivation and to sustain and expand agriculture in our coastland; also on many new advanced and specialized hospitals and schools. Citizens’ immediate welfare has not been overlooked entirely – old age pensions have been increased; certain support for pensioners have been restored; and there are cash payments to persons in disasters and difficult situations. We cannot overlook that all this infrastructure is creating jobs and many of our fellow citizens are taking the opportunities for training on and off the job, and gaining varied experiences all the while.
So, Mr. Norton could not be saying that there is nothing for citizen’s welfare but in his opinion and the opinion of his supporters – too much is being spent on roads and bridges and other infrastructure. Mr. Norton is not saying that nothing should be spent on infrastructure, investing for a better tomorrow at the expense of more today. The question is where to strike the balance.
I offer the usual examples of the Asian tigers in the years after World War II, starting from positions lower than ours and growing steadily and rapidly over many decades – Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. It used to be said that they were investing 30% to 40% of the little they had then, in their early years, into infrastructure, in educating and training themselves and in other preparatory ways so that they (without an oil or other bonanza) maintained average GDP growth rates of 10% over the decades, doubling the value of their GDP (and average real income) every seven years.
The above I read in books, but as I have said before, I have also had personal testimony. About 2010, I led the Guyana side in a meeting here of the “Guyana-South Korea Joint Commission”. The Deputy Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs who led the South Korean side, as if to say that they didn’t always have things that good, disclosed that when he was a child in the 1960s, things were very bad, so bad that they were living on “food aid”, “alms from other countries”. He recalled being taken in marches and protests by his parents and grandparents demanding, “Food, not Infrastructure”. However, now, looking back he has to acknowledge that it was the infrastructure forcibly put in by General Park that got them onto a road of economic take-off.
There, is my offering in a generalized way for a new changed vision for Mr. Norton and many of his AfroGuyanese followers, and indeed it is an appropriate vision, “doing, growing and developing like the Asian Tigers”, for all Guyanese. This is our time for sowing, for investing in our future; putting the infrastructure in place to help make us and our succeeding generations more productive and able to sustain steadily higher standards of living.
Patience. We must bide our time knowing that it is easy to move up to higher standards of living but awful when we cannot sustain it and must move back down – that was the traumatic experience of all of us who lived through about 1975 to 1990. We wouldn’t want to increase pensioner stipend, nor our pay at unsustainable rates, only to have to reduce them directly or through rampant uncontrolled, hyperinflation as we have had before. The complaints we already have of high, increasing prices particularly for locally grown vegetables in our markets can be interpreted as evidence of increased consumer (workers) spending money going after vegetables whose production has not increased proportionately (Time to get some shade houses).
A related piece of this vision is unfolded in another headline, “Jagdeo praises Amerindians for making use of small amounts of money – wants coast landers to follow suit.” [Kaieteur News, August 21st, 2024]. It will do well as part of the AfroGuyanese vision and indeed the shared vision for all us Guyanese. It is good to start at that small scale that has a chance of success, to gain some experiences, to learn, then to grow all around. Starting small allows many start-ups and the greater likelihood of recovering to try again when we fail. AfroGuyanese and indeed all Guyanese are invited and welcome to join with us PPP/C sharing in our vision, participating in and contributing to our realization of a successful life and living for all of us Guyanese. And you may bring along Mr. Norton.
Sincerely,
Samuel A A Hinds
Former Prime Minister and Former
President
Ambassador to the USA and to the
OAS
