Order in the House!

LIKE many others in and outside of Guyana, I watched absolute pandemonium take hold of the National Assembly before the end of last year. What I expected to be a long, rigorous debate on a crucial piece of legislation descended into a disappointing show of leadership.

What I am referring to is the ruckus and disruption that ensued when the amendments to the Natural Resource Fund (NRF) Act (you know, the one that governs our oil fund) were brought to the House for debate.

It was nearly 19:00hrs on December 29 and it promised to be a long night and early morning listening to speaker after speaker from both sides of the house discuss and debate the government-led amendments.

What I expected was that these amendments would be so well ventilated that Guyanese like myself could understand and appreciate the importance of the fund, the intricacies of its management, and how all of our leaders would be acting to ensure that the oil revenues would be transparently managed — at the very least.

I don’t think this was an unfair expectation.

Of course, one can argue that with or without the debates, the amendments would have been passed, because the government has a majority in the National Assembly, and that would be a very valid point. And for context, the amendments were passed and we now have a new governance structure in place because the President has signed the amendments into law.

But that’s not the only purpose of having parliamentary debates.

Parliamentary discussions and even lively debates are crucial in a democratic society such as ours. These are the avenues– sometimes the only avenues — that we have to ventilate crucial issues and bring ideas, concerns and/or suggestions into the public’s eye.

And this time around, because these amendments were seemingly contentious (if you followed the discourse in the local media) but certainly, all-important, Guyanese deserved to hear their elected representatives discuss and debate the amendments.

We didn’t have that, and I am disappointed. It is not because of any opposing political preferences or simply my disdain for the seizure of the Speaker’s mace (though really, that was a terribly misguided action). But, it is because I feel as though my elected representatives did not represent me or my interests well enough. The NRF Act is too important to just be glossed over and passed within minutes- no matter how sound the amendments are.

The resource fund is the mechanism through which Guyana will be saving and spending its revenues from the oil sector. In the simplest possible way I can express myself, I would say that this fund is what will determine whether Guyana can develop well because of the oil and gas sector or whether the country will languish.

Guyana continues to benefit from a myriad of expert (and also non-expert) advice on how this fund will help to transform the lives of Guyanese. With frugal saving and spending, the revenues can be invested into massive programmes and policies– such as world-class hospitals and infrastructure — that will improve the lives of Guyanese. But if corruption takes hold, those ambitions could be dashed aside.

And so when the proposed law for the management of such a fund comes for ventilation in the space where my elected representatives are, again, I do not believe that it is unfair to expect that it would be discussed and debated in great detail.

Guyana’s oil and gas sector fascinates me as much as it scares me. It fills me with as much optimism for Guyana’s developmental prospects as it does with sheer cynicism that the country will not be able to defy all the expectations of corruption and mismanagement.

I hold onto the hope, however, that the will of the people prevails, and they choose people who are best suited to manage their patrimony. We choose them to occupy the seat of government, we choose them to occupy the seat of the opposition, and we choose them to occupy other decision-making spheres, such as in civil society or the private sector.

The lack of order and sheer ruckus in the National Assembly recently did not inspire much confidence in some of my elected representatives. One can hope and pray (if you’re a praying person) that this occurrence was merely an unfortunate outlier.

I hope we can do better.

If you would like to discuss this column or any of my previous writings, please feel free to contact me via email: vish14ragobeer@gmail.com

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