OPINION: The philosophy of doom and self-destruction must be abandoned

Last Updated on Wednesday, 26 February 2025, 21:23 by Writer

By Dr. Randy Persaud, Professor Emeritus

Stefan Dercon’s Gambling on Development: Why Some Countries Win and Others Lose (Hurst, 2022) is of great significance to Guyana in the current conjuncture, and must be read by all who want to go beyond the wild claims and ridiculous propositions that pass for analysis. Just yesterday, for instance, the intellectuals behind the Kaieteur News editorial had this to say: “Their [Guyanese people] impoverishing plight is so overpowering that even their saliva dries up. The people in America who own pieces of paper prosper, while the Guyanese people who own the rich product punish” (2/25/2025). The learned among us might ask: why respond to this kind of nonsense, when in fact, it has no merit, no value, and no place in serious deliberations on Guyana’s economic and social development?

The truth is that wishy-washy ‘analysis’ has become routine, so much so that it is threatening to become a new base-line, a new common-sense, in the wider opposition circles. If you think this is an exaggeration, then just flip a few pages in the same February 25^th edition of KN and you will encounter the following from Peeping Tom: “Deals are being made, contracts are being awarded and the nation’s wealth is being siphoned off at an alarming rate” (2/25/2025). These statements are clearly the product of the unreconstructed anti-development ideologues who still think that foreign investment is a sin. This Manichean construction of a pure internal self, and a dangerous world out there, driven by foreign capital, must be abandoned at once.

Professor Dercon’s book can show the way forward. The central argument is that countries that have moved forward were able to strike a “development bargain.” A “development bargain” is in place when there is a commitment by business and political elites, as well as civil society leaders, to put the economic development of the country as the highest priority. Professor Dercon includes the military in his ‘assemblage’ of consensus. This is no doubt influenced by the high rate of interference by the military in African countries. In the case of Guyana, it is better to replace the military with the media in the development bargain.

Duncan Green (of Oxfam) presents the bargain thus: “A development bargain is a specific form of elite bargain, one of many possible ones. It is an agreement among those with power that growth and development should be pursued, even if they disagree over policy details. Countries with a development bargain tend to have three features in common: 1) the politics of the bargain are real and credible, not just some vague official statement or announcement, (2) the capabilities of the state are used to achieve the goals of the bargain, but, importantly, the state avoids doing more than it can handle; and (3) the state possesses a political and technical ability to learn from mistakes and correct course” (Green, 9/1/2022).

Criterion one, that is, a “real and credible” commitment to development is well in place in Guyana as far as the current PPP administration is concerned. Proof of this can be found in the detailed LCDS-driven development plan, as well as in the past several budgets. Others in the political matrix must step forward to offer their own commitment. It behooves them to abandon using development as a political football.

Point two above, concerns the capabilities of the state. On this score, every effort is being made to build out and strengthen state capacity in all the critical areas: physical infrastructure, IT and cyber infrastructure; human capital; finance and banking innovation; administrative processes to deliver government services; new foreign investment protocols; and, inter alia, a serious commitment to national security. Note that the Ali administration has resisted calls by the opposition to go beyond what is rational and feasible. The magnitude and rate of development commitments must be, and are now being carefully handled to match existing resources and capabilities.

The third dimension of Dercon’s development triad concerns political and technical competence. In this regard, I ask that readers review the positions articulated in the KN editorial and Peeping Tom column. You will find significant evidence of incompetence here. While there is a broad consensus for economic and social development in Guyana, there is still a massive ideological overhang from the era of anti-colonial agitation. The APNU-AFC, and lesser players like the WPA, continue to see the world in the framework of the saved and the dammed. It is incumbent on them to dispel with the idea that foreign investment is “evil.”

In closing, I want to specifically tell KN intellectuals that the foreigners have done much more than hold on to pieces of paper. To date, they have invested nearly US$50,000,000,000 in this country. Those investments have turned Guyana from among the poorest countries in this hemisphere, to the fastest growing economy in the world. As for Peeping Tom, yes, deals are being made and contracts are being awarded. That is how you create opportunities, create jobs, produce wealth, and ensure a future worth having. Sir, the philosophy of doom and self-destruction must be abandoned.

Dr. Dercon is Professor of Economic Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government and the Economics Department, and a Fellow of Jesus College, at Oxford. I had the privilege of discussing some of his key ideas during a visit with President Ali to Oxford University last September. He is a brilliant, thoughtful, but unassuming scholar. I commend his work to you if there is serious interest in national development.

Dr. Randy Persaud is Adviser on International Affairs, Office of the President.