If one reflects on the state of our population in Guyana, one can understand why we are still stuck with an output per person of below US$5000 per year. In 1960, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of Guyana was US$307 per year, while that of Singapore was US$427, a mere US$120 apart. Today, Singapore produced some US$53,000 per person while Guyana is stuck in the dregs at US$4456.
Much of the world rewards leadership that knows where they are going and this is exactly what has not happened in Guyana. Singapore nurtured their education systems and their people. The strategy was educating their people in the right field of study, at the right time, at the right levels and used socially intrusive initiatives such as housing to ensure that the people can focus on improving their productivity. Today, almost 98 per cent of Singaporeans own their own homes. Compared to the Granger tenure, they have built less than 200 houses in three years in a population that has a demand for 20,000 homes today.
Singapore ensured that ethnic balance is reflected in all State institutions, unlike this Granger regime that appointed 16 of the 17 Permanent Secretaries from one race and over 85 per cent of the newly appointed heads of agencies from the same race. A multiracial, multi-religious nation cannot develop in such a manner. President Granger is wrong.
Guyana faced this tragic developmental model for 28 years under the People’s National Congress and the results were tragic for Guyana; we became uncreditworthy and financially bankrupt by the time Desmond Hoyte changed the model. Today, under Granger, we are back to square one, doing the same thing again, and expecting a different outcome. That is developmental insanity!
Not only the world but also some 550,000 Guyanese saw this developmental insanity and rejected it by voting with their feet. This situation has led to stagnation in the population. Meanwhile, in a place like Singapore, they empowered their entrepreneurs causing a dire shortage of skilled workers. By 2017, there were some 1.6 million foreign workers in Singapore on a work permit. Guyana, on the other hand, is firing 6000 sugar workers.
The table below illustrates what has been happening on the population front in Guyana compared to Singapore. That city-state has expanded its population six times over in 57 years, meanwhile, in Guyana, we have chased so many of our people out the country that we have not even doubled our population in this period.
SINGAPORE GUYANA
POPULATION IN 1950 1,022,000 406,000
POPULATION IN 2017 7,260,000 (including 1.65M migrants on work permits) 777,000
PERCENTAGE
INCREASE
(over 67 years) 610% 91%
In Singapore, their construction sector, seafood sector, shipping sector, engineering sector and hi-tech sector are all booming and it did not happen by magic. It took leadership! When LFS Burnham was playing political strong man travelling the world selling his bankrupt ideas, Singapore was building their nation brick by brick. The end result is a testament to who was the developmental thoroughbred and who was the developmental “kangala”.
As an example, Singapore does not have one drop of crude oil but has one of the largest petroleum industries in Asia. Guyana by 2022 will be pumping about 500,000 bpd of crude oil but will not have even a 40,000 bpd refinery thanks to the bankrupt ideas of President Granger, if we are to believe the words of Minister Raphael Trotman.
Progressive nations are focused on revenue and the value-added elements of the value chain. This Granger model is focused on spending and more spending. Even the African leaders have moved away from this “Mugabian philosophy”. If the people are to reflect on the nation’s gold reserves and foreign reserves, they will find that since President Granger arrived in 2015, we have lost 85 per cent of our gold reserves and the stock of foreign reserves have evaporated by more than US$200 million. And there is no concrete plan to refill the coffers.
Today we spend some GY$30 billion of taxpayers’ dollars per year on an education system that produces a 38 per cent pass rates in Mathematics (2016) and that includes a Grade III, which in my books is not a passing grade. I was advised that it has declined to 35 per cent in 2017. If a nation cannot get its Mathematics right, it cannot compete in the new global world order. SIMPLE!
The outcome of this lackadaisical style of governance from Granger is most destructive. The Guyanese people are waking up to a 1.9 per cent growth rate in 2018, a far cry from the 5.4 per cent of 2013. When will this gobbledygook style of leadership end in Guyana?
