In a matter of less than five years Guyana has ‘graduated from being a poor, underdeveloped country with little in terms of developmental transformation to look to, at least in the near to medium term, to a country that has captured the attention of the international community on account of what experts have termed a “world class” oil find. Ours could well turn out to be one of the great rags to riches stories of our time even though only those who ignore the iron-clad realities of history would consider that transition to be a fait accompli.
Stories of oil-rich developing countries that have failed to ‘make the cut’ insofar as transforming oil wealth into development is concerned abound, particularly in Africa. The causes range from institutional incompetence to shocking extremes of corruption that have left the world filled with poor countries where some of the richest men on the planet live.
The issue of the need to guard against corruption and how it could derail whatever plans might be construed to derail the schemes of those who would ‘rip off’ the country abound. Even though, and with due respect to the sustained insistence by President David Granger that the returns from oil and gas are not intended to further line the already deep pockets of the rich and famous. The precedents which, by now, most if not all of us should be aware of, are simply too compelling to ignore. As it happens most of those stories of failure to convert oil resources into real development are linked, almost invariably in the first instance, to greedy and corrupt politicians who, in the face of the opportunities that power provides to take short-cuts to riches, yield to the temptation.
So that while President Granger’s persistent reference to the importance of prudent and careful management of our oil resources seeks to communicate a measure of assurance, it falls to government to create an enabling environment in which an anti-corruption culture can flourish and which will, as far as possible create an accountability barrier between grasping hands that might wield and the country’s oil wealth. Those laws, one might add, must take account of the need not only to recover the wealth of the nation from those who would treat it as their own, but also to suitably punish them for their misdeeds.
Whatever we do has to be guided by the lessons of history. With the best will in the world the security of the nation’s wealth cannot be risked on the basis of shallow assumptions regarding the integrity of politicians. Not only should there exist watchdog mechanisms designed to ‘keep them honest,’ but, equally importantly, those who seek to lead but whose credentials do not fit the demanding requirements of honesty and integrity, should not be allowed to be the watchdogs of the nation’s resources. One makes this point mindful of the fact that history instructs us that in those countries where oil wealth has been frittered away and life-enhancing opportunities lost, politicians and their adjutants have been the principal beneficiaries.
What is of critical need here is the importance of strongly embracing public opinion in fashioning the constraints and restraints that seek to protect our national patrimony. While it is true that politicians in democratic countries are elected to provide leadership and make critical decisions on behalf of the nation, there are some issues, and the wealth of the nation is one of those where decision-making becomes a sufficiently critical issue to have the process thrown out to the people as a whole.
