Arriving for the GB20 Summit in Toronto, Canada, President Christina Fernandez of Argentina warned against policies of austerity. AThe focus is absolutely wrong she said. The President explained that policies of cutting deficits and removing stimulus in the midst of a recession were responsible for an Aimplosion in Argentina resulting in a US$100 billion default and one in four Argentinians out of work. It is only when former President Kirschner, the husband of President Fernandez, ignored conventional wisdom and reversed the policies of austerity that the economy stabilized. The Argentine economy has been recovering ever since and is expected to grow by 5 percent this year.

 

The electoral victory of the People’s Partnership in Trinidad and Tobago, the subject of much recent comment in our press, has highlighted the issue of alliance politics which was pioneered by the PPP in Guyana.

The success of the People’s Partnership was based on this creative alliance, decisive leadership and hard work. The failures of governance during the PNM’s terms of office, allegations of corruption, squandermania and arrogant behavior played an important role in diminishing support of the PNM. These factors facilitated a landslide victory for the People’s Partnership. 

There is no doubt that Guyana has made tremendous progress in every area of life in the years since 1992 when the PPP/C was first elected to office. Most people, including me, believe that in some, or even many, areas more could have been done, or things could have been done differently. But this does not detract from the fact that visible and substantial progress has been made so that the lives of Guyanese people are measurably better that they were twenty years ago. 

 

Guyana is still officially named “The Co-operative Republic of Guyana.” The name was devised at the time when Guyana discovered its own path to socialism – through co-operatives. Thus Guyana’s theory of co-operative socialism was reflected in its name.

The spectacular collapse of “co-operative socialism” and the co-operative movement led to the complete abandonment of co-operatives as a method of economic organization. Thousands of people had lost millions of dollars which had been invested in agricultural, housing and other types of co-operatives. Bad management and corruption in a situation of declining economic growth had taken their toll.

A news report said that a World Bank team was in Guyana to discuss with officials the “adopting of modern legislation that will  allow customers to offer assets other than real estate as guarantees for loans.” This is welcome news. But this work has already been done.

In the mid 1990s a Canadian expert visited Guyana and examined our laws for the same purpose. He made several visits and spent several months on the project. He finally produced a report which is gathering dust on a shelf somewhere. It is not clear from the newspaper report if the authorities are aware of this report.