Dear Editor,
Guyana has some very talented journalists without a doubt. The dilemma is that many valuable resources seem to be squandered away on never-ending battles on competing, overworked and tired ideologies. Guyana is a vast country with tremendous potential and with an abundance of natural resources which could serve the aspirations of its people many times over. However, the pressing issues concerning Guyana’s natural resources, hardly seems to generate any heated debate or to attract much attention.
This responsibility is left with outside agencies and foreign conglomerates, which they have exploited with vulgarity over the decades, and they have wreaked untold destruction leaving pollution in their wake to extract riches from gold and lumber. Some of these conglomerates were brought into the country during a dictatorship era. They are still maintaining their grip on the country and relentlessly bleeding the country for its natural resources.
The Guyana government is rubbing its hands with glee from all this. The more the in-fighting the less attention will be focused on them. Success is always measured against a dictatorship baseline which ended 17 years ago, and giving the government wide latitude to crow about minuscule achievements, including begrudging press freedom. Democracy and dictatorship are poles apart, but this makes little difference to those in power, who are unwilling to grasp the difference.
Under a democracy, government is accountable to its people. In Guyana it seems to be the other way round. In pursuit of massive profits at the expense of the people, the foreign conglomerates are able to pressurize weak and subservient governments to act as their puppets. By by-passing the mandate of a democratic electorate the multi-nationals are usurping powers.
The political writer, Janine Wedel has been examining the powers that pressure groups can exercise over governments in the developed world. The claim is that these pressure groups have become the new ‘shadow elite’ over democratic governments and dictate policies in pursuit of their own objectives.
The IDB has imposed transparency and accountability in their recent spate of loans to the government. However, this is not what the Guyana government would like to hear. Without a Freedom of Information Act in place, however, they know that they can get away with it. They cannot be forced to deliver on transparency let alone on accountability and accuracy.
They will therefore resist attempts by the electorate to get a Freedom of Information Act passed. Apart from exposing their inherent weaknesses, such an act would allow greater public scrutiny over the conglomerates that are able to wield control with impunity over politicians and government.
The current LCDS (Low Carbon Develop-ment Strategy) being developed by the Guyana government has occupied the President’s undivided attention, regardless of the lapses in security and policing which are left dumped in the back seat. His aim is to meet with the paper conditions set out in an MOU with the Norwegians and earn vast sums from carbon offsets. A huge administrative headquarters in Georgetown will be needed for this purpose.
Georgetown will become a hub of highly-paid, foreign consultants on site, reporting back to their senior executives in outside consultancy firms. These agencies will dictate how government policies should run.
The government’s record on transparency and accountability is seriously lacking as Transparency International has indicated. This will conflict with the MOU where transparency, accountability and accuracy are key requirements. It remains to be seen whether this fundamental public right will yet again be compromised.
If the income from the carbon deal is swallowed up in vastly inflated fees to foreign consultants at the behest of the government and its partners, then this should become public knowledge at the very inception with no cover-ups. Past experience should provide lessons that must be avoided like the plague, and not be repeated over and over again.
It has become an absolute priority for a Freedom of Information Act to be put in place without delay. This is an essential piece of legislation for any decent democracy, especially where corruption is rife. This fundamental right should not be left in the hands of governments with a penchant for cover-ups.
This act would provide investigative journalists with a valuable tool to explore new horizons and hidden, shady territories as opposed to defending tired and overworked ideologies.
Yours faithfully,
Mac Mahase
