ARTICLE 15: “The goal of economic development includes the objective of laying the material for the greatest possible satisfaction of the people’s growing material, cultural and intellectual requirements, as well as the dynamically stable development of their personality, creativity, entrepreneurial skills, and co-operative relations in a plural society. The State shall intervene to mitigate any deleterious effects of competition on individuals or groups of individuals.”

In politics, as in life in general, there is a profound difference between what is happening and what is said to be happening. In Guyana, the case of infrastructure comes to mind.
President, Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali and his administration has embarked on an aggressive programme of infrastructural development. The President is keen on transforming the physical and institutional capacities of the country. Considerable resources are also dedicated to multiple platforms of cultural renewal, with a focus on re-imagining the country as One Guyana. For President Ali, oil & gas, in and of itself, will not deliver the promised land unless a new sense of nationhood based on democratic principles and mutual respect is fashioned.

One would think that the development of modern infrastructure would meet with universal approval. Sadly, this is not so. Instead of embracing the rapid modernisation of the country, the opposition parties, along with a few private interest groups self-described as “civil society” organisations, seem to think it is better we remain in a state of inertia. Even worse, the APNU-AFC, and some of the so-called civic groups like Article 13, are making claims about discriminatory economic development.

The issue here is clearly one of differing priorities between the PPP/C and the APNU-AFC regarding macro-economic policies, combined with a good deal of routine ignorance of the latter.
Whereas the previous APNU-AFC administration adopted a short-term, tax and spend approach, the PPP/C has been laser-focused on a long-term strategy of putting into place the requisite physical infrastructure and institutional frameworks to facilitate the expansion of economic activity. APNU-AFC raised taxes on both capital and consumer goods during their tenure and combined that with heavy borrowing and deficit spending to drive short-term consumption.

Upon taking office, President Ali and his economic architects set about removal of the APNU-AFC tax burden. Reversal of numerous taxes, such as the tributor tax in the mining sector, was met with massive approval. But more than that, the administration has set about what the President has aptly labelled structural transformation, with emphasis on infrastructural development.

Infrastructure is something widely misunderstood, and this not least by the APNU-AFC, and by those whom columnist Freddie Kissoon calls the ‘usual suspects’.
Infrastructure, involves, but goes beyond building (or improving) roads, bridges, canals, airports, ports, and other physical facilities. It also involves investments for innovation in education and job training to meet the needs of the oil and gas industry, as well as the burgeoning service sector. Considerable soft infrastructure development must also be carried out in areas such as banking and insurance. To boot, government services must also be transformed so that a ‘whole of government’ infrastructure is up and running.

Infrastructure development is politically challenging because while large financial outlays are incurred upfront, the results they yield are not realised until much later. This lag-time between investments and end products is often exploited by those bent of disinformation, instead of structural transformation. Lines like ‘people can’t eat roads’ can get applauses, but while hand-clapping dies out quickly, hardships such as black outs, bad roads or no roads, linger on to the detriment of all.

The Usual Suspects often complain that foreign companies are exploiting Guyanese. The little anti-government group, Article 13, for instance, has been politicising the oil & gas sector. Its draws on a bank of key words like inclusion, discrimination, and inequality. Article 13 of the Constitution of Guyana is often invoked. But what about Article 15, which clearly empowers the state to ensure “dynamically stable development”, and to intervene to correct structural problems in the economy?

Numerous speeches by President Ali, Vice-President Jagdeo, Prime Minister Phillips, as well ministers of the government, have pointed to an integrated strategy where the oil and gas sector is being used as a resource to widen the base of the economy. Substantial emphasis, for instance, is placed on food security. Further, the government’s aggressive 50,000 housing plan, and other measures such as the part-time employment programme, cash grants to small businesses, GOAL scholarships, and $30,000 grant to students, among others, speak to a balanced approach to economic development. And further still, the Low Carbon Development Strategy – Toward 2030 is a systematically articulated framework for climate-sensitive economic development.

Highly developed physical and institutional infrastructure are integral elements of human development, that is, about you and your community. Instead of the instant gratification approach to development desired by the opposition (such as Clive Thomas’ US$5,000 for every Guyanese), President Ali’s administration is patiently building out a comprehensive infrastructure for sustainable development in a plural society.