…on voting
With us heading towards elections in some six weeks, we’ve seen the PPP – running the incumbent Government – first off the blocks with their manifesto they hope gonna knock the socks off the electorate. They assume, of course, that the said electorate think logically to compare and contrast the manifestos of the seven parties – even the Know Nothing one! – and put their Xs on the one they think gonna do the best job!! There’s also the rational criteria of considering the history of those doing the promising – on how well they’ve kept previous promises!
Sadly, history – and empirical studies – have consistently shown that most voters don’t give a hoot about voting rationally based on programs or history!! The few that do are called “floating voters” or a “swing vote” – since their shifting choices give any of the competing parties an opportunity to get into office – if they’re a large enough block, of course!!
Your Eyewitness most shocking example of non-rational voting was the results of the 1992 free and fair elections – after twenty-eight years of the PNC dictatorship. The PNC had kept none of their promises – even the ones to provide the bare necessities of life in housing, food and clothing!! And yet they received the same 42% of the vote they’d received in 1964 – when no one knew their real nature!!
But if it’s one thing all of us humans would agree on, it’s that we live in hope. So when it comes to voting, we hope that more folks would vote rationally and select governments based on their objective assessments. That is the party with the best programme and best qualified to execute the said programme.
But you, Dear Reader, would know that your Eyewitness has been pushing another yardstick to pick our parties – their philosophy on development. Now you might’ve done a double take when you heard the word “philosophy” mentioned in the same sentence as you!! But don’t get worried. All of us have some basic gut feelings on what it takes to promote development. This is your “philosophy” on the subject!!
In Guyana it boils down to two approaches – those who think they should be handed the good life on a platter and those who think they should simply be given the OPPORTUNITY to work for the good life. The approaches are described broadly by the fancy terms “equality of results” and “equality of opportunity”. While it sounds nice that everybody should all have the same good life, it offends your Eyewitness’ sense of equity, fairness and justice – that even if a person is unwilling to work as hard as the next fellow, he ends up with the same “goods”!!
So don’t just look at the promises – consider what they’re based on!
…on development finance
Now, if you’re rational, you’re gonna wanna ensure you don’t get caught by those politicians who’ll promise you everything and anything!! The sun, the moon AND the stars!! The least you gotta ask is, “Where will they get the money??” After all, we know that nothing gets done without moolah and ENOUGH moolah to make the promise become real. Well, the PPP’s GS announced that they’ll be introducing a “Development Bank” – which will be funded from our own burgeoning oil revenues!!
Back in the day after “independence” – when we didn’t have two cents to rub – thanks to the Brits shipping it back to Old Blighty by the shiploads! – the Yanks and the West had established a World Bank that was supposed to fund our development projects. Trouble was, their interest and the other “conditionalities” ensured that they’d ended up with more money from us that we from them!!
Our self-funded development bank will ensure that we the people will at long last keep our business profits!!
…on solid data
We can get an idea of how much the World Bank has our back from the fact they were using 2019 data to tell the world – and the opposition – that our PRESENT poverty rate is 48%, not 20%!!
