Dear Editor,
A Government’s highest responsibility is to ensure the physical, economic, psychological and spiritual well-being and security of its citizens; all of its citizens. This responsibility is also enshrined and guaranteed under its Constitution.

Over the last two months, there have been several media articles on shared governance and much debate. Dr. Henry Jeffrey, Dr. David Hinds, Lincoln Lewis, Nigel Hughes, Doerga Persaud, GHK Lall, WPA, ACDA, ANUG and many others have written on this topic. Interestingly, the Indo-Guyanese community seems to want to continue the winner-take-all form of government. Some who consider themselves the intellectual leaders of that community are pushing Federalism instead of shared governance.
What is most disappointing about these discussions is that the focus is entirely on a political solution.

Guyana’s real problem is how to achieve political, economic and social justice. All of the debates, letters and Facebook conversations have ignored the real essence of our problems. Hence, the solutions being discussed have limited chances of success. We have a deep penchant for defining the wrong problem in Guyana. Equally frightening is that we have great intellectual debates solving the wrong problem.

Leadership matters and a critical skill of all great leaders is defining the real problem and ensuring that the solutions address that problem.

Guyana is a divided society. For historical reasons, and more recently, for political reasons, Guyana is politically divided. Guyana is also economically divided. Guyana is also racially divided. Guyana is religiously and spiritually divided. As much as there are varying degrees of tolerance, the country is divided in many significant ways. Just as important is the fact that Guyana has no intrinsic set of shared values, shared expectations and shared benefits. Many of the races have a different narrative of Guyana’s history, much of which is based on myth and not reality.

We speak often about Guyanese culture, but we are very superficial in our understanding of culture. When we speak of “the culture of a place”, we are talking about far more than its artistic expressions, or its “cultural products, such as literature, music, dance, art, sculpture, theatre, film and sport. All of these are, of course, important expressions of the culture of any social group, and are part of its shared joy in the business of being alive.

But culture is more than that culture is about shared patterns of identity, symbolic meaning and aspirations, and about the relationships between individuals and groups within that society. Culture is also about the relationship between ideas and perspectives; about self- respect and a sense of security; how individuals are socialised, and values are formed and transmitted. Culture is also deeply intertwined with structures of power and wealth.
In essence, Guyana is also very culturally divided because of learnt expectations through religion and ethnic socialisation in homes.

Before we debate shared governance and create false positive solutions, Guyanese have to first accept that there are 10 inconvenient truths facing us that we ignore or choose to ignore at our peril. I am currently using my COVID-19 lockup, or lockdown, to write a book about them. In my earlier letter, I wrote: “The global COVID-19 pandemic is the moral, social, cultural, religious, economic, health, political and financial crisis of our times and will be with us for quite a while.

Likewise, any solutions to Guyana’s problems should be created within the context of a moral, political, social, religious, economic and financial context. Winner-take-all, shared governance, federalism, separation or any other solution, should have a broader context than just a political restructuring of the functional architecture of government.

Restructuring government does not address the structural racism that exists in our institutions. It does not address the cancerous racism that exists. The biggest racists seem to be arguing there is no racism. Only reflecting their selfish interests and not the interests of the whole.

GOOD SHARED GOVERNANCE
What Guyana needs is good shared, inclusive government. All three elements are needed. Good governance. Shared governance. Inclusive government. Without a framework in which all Guyanese have proportional access to the countries resources, we will not move forward in peace.

Take for example inclusive economics. Government procurement cannot just go to one or two races. This will continue to expand economic inequalities in Guyana. This is inclusive government that addresses racism and mutual economic growth of all races.

We need a new “social contract” as part of inclusive shared governance architecture. . Our new “social contract” must benefit all Guyanese. We cannot use the neoliberal economics which has created increasing inequalities leading to environmental devastation, massive corruption and in which the rich get richer because they have competitive advantage. Much of this competitive advantage or business acumen arguments are created myths. It is about privilege. Just look at some of the richest people in Guyana. They got so because they had privileged access to gold concessions and now 20 people control massive amounts of land that has gold. This is not about equity or brilliance. This is about privilege.

Amerindians have 15% of Guyana’s lands through the Amerindian Act of 2006. Shouldn’t they own a Bank? Shouldn’t they have procurement rights so that youth unemployment in their communities is addressed. Most of the wealthy in Guyana have become so through unequal access to State assets. Yes, State assets.

As Mike McCormack stated in his letter: “gold-mining has been far and away, the largest contributor to squandering the shared inheritance that mineral wealth ought to represent. According to official sources, a total of 11.1 million ounces of gold have been extracted from Guyana in the forty year period from 1980-2019. Based on yearly average prices over this period, the total value of gold extracted was valued at USD7.4 billion, or G$1.5 trillion dollars. All races must have equal access and rights to the nation’s resources.”

What we need is a group, inclusive of all races, working with lawyers and politicians (Why am I repeating myself?) to develop a reality based comprehensive good shared inclusive government framework that addresses political, economic and social justice using a Universal Declaration of Human Rights based definition of democracy that is relevant to a society that wants to be at peace with itself and a model for other developing countries ravaged by the neoliberal capitalist inequality based and environmentally destructive system of the West. For example, we could approach our inclusive democracy versus majoritarian democracy by defining “democracy as a market of freedoms, collective ideas, inclusive and transparent institutions and community”. This means democracy should ensure community based inclusive decision-making.

INCONVENIENT TRUTHS
In closing, I hope we expand our intellectual debates about our future. We need to recognize these 10 inconvenient truths namely: (1) We are a divided society: politically, economically, socially, culturally, religiously and structurally. (2) The winner-take-all system is a pernicious system for a society such as Guyana.(3) We are heading to inclusive shared governance or separation. We already have a form of separation in our society.

Indigenous Guyanese already have their own lands and separate governance frameworks such as the National Toshao’s Council and their own Ministry of Indigenous Affairs.(4) We need to redefine democracy to suit our own Guyanese needs. Democracy is not about a majority imposing its will on others in society. Democracy for Guyana has to be underpinned by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. (5) We have to create a new “Social Contract”. This contract has to be based on inclusivity, total inclusivity.(6) We have to re-purpose our economy to maximize the social and economic welfare of Guyanese. Guyana is extremely blessed with an incredible portfolio of resources. (7) We have to re-tool our workforce to bring value to our citizens and to maximize our global economic prospects. (8) We have to create shared cultural values if we are to become “One People, One Nation, One Destiny”.(9) We have to re-define our global economic strategy and create a different geo-political paradigm. (10) We have to understand we are a Caribbean People with a Continental destiny.

Guyana is extremely blessed with an incredible portfolio of resources. It has approximately 18 million hectares of pristine forest; an abundance of water (the source of life) ; sunshine , no hurricanes or earthquakes; oil ; gold; diamonds; manganese; bountiful seafood; unique bio-diversity; a land with over 200 fruits and vegetables ; a land that has produced brilliant scholars, scientists, teachers engineers, lawyers , nurses who populate and develop other countries of the world. Guyana is not land locked and is English speaking and strategically located as an English bridge between the Caribbean and Latin America; a land that sits next to Brazil, a country of over 200 million and the 6th largest economy in the world.

I have strong faith in Guyanese solving Guyanese problems using Guyanese models. We have become too “foreign” minded thus allowing too many foreign dictates on our society. We are all faced with a series of great opportunities – brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems (John Gardner).
Regards,
Eric Phillips