Dear Editor,
In her letter of the Stabroek News edition of August 13th, 2023, Janette Bulkan contended that Guyana is looking more and more like the totalitarian State of Oceania in Georgia Orwell’s novel 1984. The learned professor’s crude assertion is premised on her views in respect of the Petroleum Activities Bill. In this regard, she argued that the Bill confers too much power onto a non-technical minister, the government’s failure to establish a Petroleum Commission and the government’s rejection of the APNU+AFC proposed amendments to the Bill. Editor, I would like to address the foregoing concerns and contentions by Janette Bulkan exclusively in another essay. For now, I wish to address the notion of whether there are features of totalitarianism emerging in Guyana.
Totalitarianism is defined as “a state of government that is centralized and dictatorial and requires subservience to the State”. Based on this definition, there was a time when Guyana was such a State, in the pre-1992 era. Further, in referencing the above case study, in Orwell’s nation, “the citizens have no individual rights or human agency to behave, think, or live the way they want. The totalitarian regime demands complete uniformity, and any deviation from the norm is considered a threat to the State and severely punished. In order to ensure uniformity and identify political dissidents, the population of Oceana is under constant surveillance”. These features of totalitarianism are not present in the Guyana of today.
If there were any features signaling a return to a totalitarian State in the case of Guyana in recent times, there are several credible examples of such under the former government during the period 2015-2020. Hereunder, are some examples that I can relate to:
Whenever the former government engages in public consultation to shape any national policy, legislation and even the national budget, this exercise was always a facade. The results from the consultations were never reflected in the final product. For example, the local content policy, I participated in submitting extensive contributions on behalf of business associations in Guyana, the same during budget consultations, and not a single contribution was ever taken on board.
The former government went against their own Commission of Inquiry’s (COI) recommendations in relation to the sugar industry. The COI report concluded in unambiguous terms not to close any sugar estates at that time considering the socio-economic impact. Yet, the former government disregarded this advice which resulted in the termination of over 7,000 sugar workers.
The former president refused on many occasions to meet with legitimate stakeholders such as the private sector bodies leaders’ during his tenure.
The former president engaged in multiple constitutional breaches, such as the unilateral appointment of the former Chairperson of GECOM.
And of course the 2020 elections fiasco where there was a desperate and transparent attempt to steal the elections by the APNU+AFC.
There are many more examples, but as I have indicated, I can personally relate to and confirm those mentioned above.
Contrasting that type of behaviour by the former government that are more so in conformity with totalitarian tendencies; reflect on the fact that the incumbent government engages directly with the people through community outreaches all across the country, subject itself to harsh criticisms from the people on the ground, make decisions on the spot to bring about the necessary interventions in response to their issues; and those engagements help in a major way to inform policymaking.
Additionally, reflect on the fact that the Local Content Act, the new model Production Sharing Agreements, the Petroleum Activities Bill, the Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) were subject to public consultation. In the case of the LCDS, the Amerindian communities were not merely consulted, but were directly involved in the process to craft the updated LCDS. Consequently, the feedback obtained from these consultative engagements―have been taken into account to a large extent in the shaping of the final products. The same is true every year during the national budget consultations.
Sincerely,
Joel Bhagwandin
