Dear Editor,
Today I read a letter in SN by Dr Janette Bulkan asking serious questions about the logging deal between the Guyana government and Bai Shan Lin.
First I must place in proper perspective just one issue that is involved. Some years ago I worked at a pharmaceutical-drug manufacturing company, Booker-BDH then located at La Penitence. It was a British-owned company that manufactured a wide assortment of drugs. A Customs official always decked out in his smart-looking, official uniform was stationed right in the factory, inspecting and recording every unit of drug that came off the assembly line. And, the company had to pay the required excise duties based on every unit of drug manufactured. The year was 1968. We had gotten our Independence and had inherited a system of administration and tax collection that was first class.
Today we read that Bai Shan Lin is engaged in the massive shipping-out of logs from Guyana – and this activity does not seem to be even monitored by the government. Whatever is mined from under the ground or grown on Guyanese soil is the patrimony of the Guyanese people. And the peoples’ representatives (Parliament) must be reasonably satisfied that while we may agree to its exploitation we must be adequately compensated for every ounce of gold and every log taken out of the country.
Devanand Bhagwan, a noted letter writer and blogger wrote, “The truckloads and shiploads of logs taken from our country [show] a blatant disregard of the country and its people, and must be stopped immediately unless controls are in place.” I join Mr Bhagwan in calling on the government to suspend this logging activity of Bai Shan Lin until the parliament can be fully apprised of all details and be satisfied that this nation is collecting its fair share of taxes due. There are other details that are also troubling. This deal may not have adequately provided for the employment of Guyanese workers. This nation, it appears has lost ownership and control of its resources and of the manner in which these are exploited. This may not just be a case of a bad deal but it our sovereignty may have been compromised. (Incidentally the Marriot construction deal that allowed the builder to import all labour – even that to push wheelbarrows with earth and sand – was also a case of compromised sovereignty).
With reference to another matter, without mentioning the name of the company, some time in the early 1990s (after Dr Jagan’s PPP was returned to power), I met a man in my taxi-cab in New York City who revealed to me that he was employed as a pilot of a small aircraft. He told me his job was to “smuggle the gold out” from the interior of Guyana and he had made over fifty such flights over a three year period. This story is at once so revealing and shocking and suggests Guyana as a nation has lost control of its resources as smuggling is systemic and institutionalized.
The bottom line is that all the principles of efficient administration and tax collection we inherited from the British had gone overboard. Forty-five years of Independence – all full of bad governance and corruption have made us a nation of penury and want. We are a resource-rich country, yet after 45 years our per capita income is a wretched US$3,450.
The Guyanese people should petition their representatives in parliament or send petitions to President Ramotar or Opposition Leaders David Granger and Khemraj Ramjattan and demand a suspension of all activities by Bai Shan Lin until the parliament can adequately review all aspects of this logging deal.
Yours faithfully,
Mike Persaud
