Dear Editor,
I think it is worth taking a close, hard look at Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for Guyana in respect of 2018. It conveys much: from the positive to the discouraging. There is some hope.
What is essayed today is not meant to be anything exhaustive; it is merely a survey of the lay of the land; and, as appropriate, to make comparisons here and there. I use 2015 as the base year; though this is at the risk of being unfair to the current administration and its efforts and record, since it only took the reins of office in May, with the first third of that year beyond its control and already history. Also, it should not be forgotten or ignored (how can anyone?) that it was an environment of almost universal dirtiness and ugliness that was inherited; and the entrenched mindsets that went along with those. Indeed; that made many things possible and so rampant.
But to progress by eight points on the plus side of the measuring scale is some achievement in just over two and a half years (full). I beg the courtesy and tolerance of rounding and approximations, as I proceed. However looked at, in this short span of time, this government has registered between a 20-25% improvement on where things and scores were pre-2015. I hasten to add that the 2018 score of 37 out of hundred is terrible; I cannot remember ever getting such a score on any personal evaluation of any sort out of a hundred. But an individual is neither a nation or a government (or public sector). Yet there is cause for applause; good sense insists that such should be quiet and polite, at best. Here are some pointed comparisons that should make others think; not necessarily agree, but think.
In 2016, the first full year of stewardship of this government, the TI’s CPI score for Guyana was 38. This is versus 29 in 2014, the last full year by the previous government at the helm. That is a 30% plus improvement, and speaks for itself. I can stipulate that the methodology is open to question, and that biases may (may) be inherent. To maintain balance, and by the same token, I appeal to, even demand of, others to acknowledge just as openly and reasonably, that corruption pre-May 2015 was tradition, religion, and rich rewarding obsession. To keep things even, I submit that, in spite of the strenuous example and exhortations of His Excellency, President David Granger, corruption remains a powerful bogeyman and jagged bone in the life and throat respectively of this society. To make matters inexcusably worse, is the fact that some of such corruption is by his people, and amongst his own inner set. At best, the 2018 numbers and the extrapolations that can be made give basis for optimism, and remain a grueling work in progress, and one that runs into ethical, individual, collective, and spiritual headwinds.
Editor, think about this: rational citizens complain that government is too stringent with the narcotics trade and anti-money laundering priorities; they would like to see a slacking off, some easing. They conveniently, crassly, and thoughtlessly ignore the sure-to-follow illegitimating of law enforcement, the magistracy, the penal system, the customs and excise system, the tax system, and the rest. The fact that Guyana could limp (some would shout that the operative verb is accelerate) from 124 in the rankings in 2014 to 93 in 2018, relays the commendable at even this early stage of a government that has made more than its share of mistakes. That is 31 places on the upside in just under four years. At this rate, and with a thinning of the ranks of committed corrupters, another five years of governance could result in somewhere close to, or above the milestone of 70 out of 100. Now that is more than a passing score, and before anyone gets carried away, it is easier speculated and hoped for than done. Further, and to be careful here, I am not selling anything. Simply letting the years and numbers tell their story, a straight story. Personally, I am heartened; as at times this place seems and feels like it is going nowhere, but backward and downward.
No question there is a long way to go; and it is not back to the future through the decadent past that has enticed and enriched, even as it embalmed the corpse of nation left in its wake. It is that corpse that is being slowly resuscitated, one public servant at a time, one contract at a time, and one process and place at a time. It is that inestimably difficult, that resisted. And it is at the impossibly snail-like pace of one day at a time.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
