Dear Editor,

A country whose citizens trust their government can achieve much more economically and socially than a non-trusting nation. This week the Bartica mining and business communities shut down operations largely because they feel unable to trust in the capacity of government to understand their fears of losing earnings and to appreciate their vulnerabilities. This shut-down would have cost the already comatose economy dearly.

Guyana’s mining sector is demonstrating that trust is an important animator of economic stability. Trust is the cement that creates successful business ventures, encouraging long-term supportive finance and the confidence to invest in costly capital equipment, personnel and new mining as well as other business opportunities; but trust cannot be created without a strong and enduring willingness to consult and consult widely.

To talk to a community at the outgrowth of a problem is not to consult but to contain. When a situation has to be contained it confirms the non-existence of trust and makes difficult the resolution of the problem creating the conflict. The political gut reaction will be to pacify Barticians by promising the sun, the moon and the stars and then play for time and for a softening of Bartica’s resolve. All this could have been avoided had the decision-making process been widened to include those most likely to be affected. Then at least there would have been a solid foundation of trust on which to build. Too late, however, is the cry and government must now acknowledge its wrongdoing and go back to the drawing board. It must inform the nation that it miscalculated the extent of economic disruption inherent in its decision to pursue a Low Carbon Development Strategy without fully considering and calculating all the negative impacts on the mining and forestry sectors and on society as a whole.

The task is now to rebuild trust and a genuine desire to see Guyanese able to earn a decent living without the imposition of obstacles which have their origin in the industrialized and prosperous economies.

Yours faithfully,
F Hamley Case