NEARLY a decade ago I came to the conclusion that Bharrat Jagdeo is the quintessential new generation type leader.
This conclusion was arrived at based on three factors, namely (1) that Jagdeo is more committed to the future than to the past; (2) that he is focused on measurable outcomes rather than platitudes, and (3) that he is an agile strategist that is not bogged down by the short-term. Back in 2001, I described the totality of President Jagdeo’s approach to governance as Responsible Pragmatism. That characterization has held up through these years and has been especially visible of recent. Let me explain.
Before I elaborate on my central claims, allow me to note that few leaders in the history of the Caribbean have achieved what this president has done to date.
Mr. Jagdeo became a senior government economist at an age when some of his critics were still in university writing little essays on how to define development. He became senior finance minister and then president while still in his thirties.
Against great odds, Mr. Jagdeo became the Chairman of the Board of the World Bank and IMF Group – a position of extraordinary distinction. Also against great odds, the president emerged as a much sought after leader on global environmental/development issues.
He won the highest award of the UNEP, and was recognized by world class publications such as Time Magazine. He was one of only four heads of state appointed by the Secretary General of the United Nations to raise billions for development. President Jagdeo has led CARICOM in various capacities and recently became the Chairman of UNASUR. Jagdeo was also awarded an honorary doctorate in Russia, and received that country’s highest award given to a foreigner by the Kremlin. Not bad for someone from Unity!
This is a formidable record by any measure. How has this come about? To answer this we need to get back to the core elements of Responsible Pragmatism.
Firstly, Bharrat Jagdeo has had the foresight and courage to look to the future. This might seem an obvious option but history tells a different story for other leaders. Most political leaders like to hide in the past because it is from there that they can invoke emotional rhetoric of historical injuries.
It is not that we do not have such a past in Guyana. We do. Slavery, indentureship, colonial strife, and a history of rigged elections – these are injuries that will not be easily erased. But rather than wallow in an epistemology of victimization as the WPA and AFC does, Jagdeo has been busy cultivating a culture of prosperity, of ownership, and of forward movement. He has been doing this through specific policies, rather than through grand rhetoric.
The second pillar of Responsible Pragmatism is just as important. One must understand that for the opposition, a construction such as ‘measureable outcomes’ is not enough. These folks prefer more sensational stuff – such as – ‘the small man is the real man’.
You will not get this kind of nonsense from Bharrat Jagdeo. For him, if you do not provide the results you must go back and work harder.
Nothing will substitute for the stated outcome. It must be delivered. We have seen this with the Berbice Bridge, the East Bank Highway, the street lights all across the country, the Ophthalmology Centre, the dozens of schools across the country, the National Stadium at Providence, the Marriott Hotel project, the lunches for children in the interior regions of the country, the new hospital in Linden, the new roads in Buxton, the water treatment plant in Cotton Tree, the thousands of house lots already given and the 10,000 more that will come on stream next year.
Some of the ‘measurables’ are there but cannot be seen with the naked eye. Take for instance the fact that the Bank of Guyana now has more than $US600 million in reserves; or that you could get a low interest home loan for up to $8 million; or that due to the economic condition more than 15,000 new vehicles have been put on the roads this year; or that despite what the critics say, Guyanese students have been topping the Caribbean in results for several years now.
Responsible Pragmatism is also built on the ability to telescope the long term structural interests of Guyana and then employ agile strategies in realizing these interests. Most politicians love the short term because they can use state resources to produce instant but less enduring results.
In the U.S. for example, a combination of ideology and political self-interest allowed an unsustainable economic bubble to get bigger and bigger. We know what happened. The gold turned to ‘lead’ and now millions are without their homes and without a job. Those who are guided by the short term are also likely to perish by it.
President Jagdeo has actively resisted falling into this trap. In a speech delivered at Enmore last year, he outlined the difference between the economics of instant gratification and the economics of wealth accumulation.
He said to workers that the easiest thing for government to do is to irresponsibly raise wages in order to curry favour with voters. He explained that with more moderate wage increases government can invest in infrastructure – hospitals, schools, roads, bridges, communications capacities, and in technical training.
He also explained that Guyana could easily allow its forest to be cut down because that would immediately provide jobs for Guyanese, and revenues for the government. Which government won’t be happy with that, he asked.
But he reasoned with people at Enmore, and then at Tuschen, and Cotton Tree, and Skeldon, and all across the interior – that while cutting down the rainforest might have great benefits for Guyana in (what is called Economic Value to the Nation), it is not the strategic thing to do.
He reasoned that Guyana can act as a carbon sink and that our economic development does not necessarily have to contribute to heightened greenhouse gas emissions.
He explained that the northern countries have done and continue to do the most destructive polluting in the world and despite their nice words at global conferences, they do not want to pay for long term abatement mechanisms such as avoided deforestation and other low carbon paths to development. Norway seems to be an exception.
I was with the president at St. Cuthbert’s Mission when he asked residents to have patience with the outside world regarding funding for Guyana’s LCDS. At the Convention Centre, he explained that a post-hegemonic global political economy is yet to emerge and that the old ways of thinking about north-south relations will make real strides, but will take time. Changes in ways in which multilateral institutions think and operate do take time and one must appreciate that IFIs such as the World Bank are no different.
Jagdeo does not give up on goals that he has set for his government. For more than a decade now he has shown that he has the patience to wait, but not wait passively. Cancun confirmed this without a doubt.