In his book “From Third World to First”, Singapore’s first PM of Lee Kwan Yu describes how he resisted his country being reclassified from a Low Income into higher categories!! That’s quite counterintuitive, no?? Who wants to be known as “poor”. Well…clearly Lee Kwan Yu!! However, he explained that the higher your country’s income rating the less grants (gifts) are offered by all the do-godder bodies out there – and higher interest rates gonna be charged if you borrow money!!
Now as we boast about being the “fastest growing economy” in the world and we’re now classified as a “High Income Country”, we gotta watch out for the great man’s warning kicking in!!! But it seems we’re still being cut some slack. Last month the UK govt hooked up with the UNDP to assist GECOM in “enhancing its institutional capacity and strengthen electoral processes ahead of the 2025 General and Regional Elections in Guyana” – which are now scheduled for Sept 1st!!
Now ain’t this wonderful for our country – in so many ways!! By your Eyewitness’ reckoning, it should take some wind out of the Opposition sails to create trouble after they’re trounced in the elections. They’ve been carrying on at a rate – and then some – about how the PPP’s gonna rig the elections with dead and foreign voters. But with the UK-UNDP experts embedded before, during and after the elections within GECOM machinery, shouldn’t this ease their fears? If, in fact such fears are real and not a ploy to commit post-elections mayhem??
So exactly how will the UK-UNDP help us: let’s count the ways!! Last October, British High Commissioner Miller had told this newspaper, “The UK Government doesn’t want to see a repeat of 2020 and throughout the world, we’ve worked with countries on free and fair elections. And we’re doing the same here.” And now concretely with this initiative – funded to the tune of $208M – firstly, there’s gonna be the aforementioned technical support team – consisting of senior international electoral experts – within GECOM. They’re supposed “to provide technical advice and support to strengthen processes such as communications, operations and logistics, etc., for the preparation, management, and conduct of the elections”. But the main thing is they can flag any hanky-panky anybody might try to pull!!”
The second function should also please the Opposition on their ostensible fears since they’ll be “Enhancing public information strategies and fostering more inclusive engagement among electoral stakeholders to promote transparency and trust.” See that – “transparency and trust”!! That should warm the cockles of the Opposition (cold) hearts!! And thirdly, they’ll be “strengthening GECOM’s operational systems, human resources, and technical capacity for sustainable electoral administration.”
No need for spreadsheets and bedsheets for tabulating votes!!
…with Human Services
Another helping hand comes from the IDB in extending a program they’d initiated a back in 2023 – the first tranche of US$30M was co-financed with Global Affairs Canada- to assist us to deepen and widen the delivery of social services to those who need it. This the loan is US$350M – but at the very low SOFR (Secured Overnight Financing Rate) which is a risk-free rate calculated based on the cost of borrowing overnight AND secured by U.S. Treasury securities!! This will probably be about 4.2%.
With these funds, the Ministry of Human Services will deepen seven ongoing programs – Digital Transformation of Social Services; Enhanced Senior Citizens’ Pension Programme for i an electronic payment systems for our 82,000 pensioners; Expanded Public Assistance for Persons with Disabilities; Scaling up training programmes that equip persons with disabilities with employability skills; Expanding the Women’s Innovation and Investment Network (WIIN) Business Clinic; Support for Survivors of Gender-Based Violence and a National Action Plan Against Human Trafficking.
Equity at last!!
…Unity
Yesterday was Indian Arrival Day in Suriname – commemorating their first indentured labourers’ arrival on June 5th 1873. This offers another reason to celebrate our commonality in the Caribbean along with Trinidad; Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent!!
