Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has said that Guyana will have to import labour. He has not specified the reason except to suggest that Guyana does not have enough people to satisfy the job market.
Many years ago, in fact, more than 40 years ago, the then Minister of Economic Development, the late Dr Kenneth King, had uttered a similar statement. His comments stemmed from the fact that the hydroelectric plant that the then government was establishing at the time in the Upper Mazaruni was going to open up industries.
That project went belly up because the World Bank, under pressure from Venezuela, withheld funding. A lot of work and equipment had gone into the Upper Mazaruni Hydro Project but such was the Venezuelan opposition that the project was halted. It eventually died.
At the time, also, Guyana was funding the project startup from its coffers. Rice and sugar had brought in substantial foreign exchange. The government was using this windfall for national development. It goes without saying that Guyana could not fund the entire hydroelectric project from its coffers. It funded the road.
On this occasion, Mr. Jagdeo is talking about importing labour from the Middle East. We don’t know why as yet.
Guyana has a high rate of unemployment. The government itself rendered a number of people jobless because of perceived political differences. At the same time, current programmes and situations have people trying their utmost to bail out of Guyana.
But let us say that there are not enough people in this country to pursue the jobs that would pop up. If the saying that charity begins at home is anything to go by, then if labour is to be imported, Guyana should first look to the Caribbean.
Even more, there are thousands of migrants from neighbouring Venezuela and Brazil. These people are coming because they see Guyana as a haven. They would jump at job offers.
Is Jagdeo saying that the migrants are not enough? At last check there were more than 50,000 Venezuelans in Guyana. And since he feels so strongly about the shortage of labour why has his government moved so harshly against the Haitians?
The Haitians are seeking a better life outside of their country. They have skills as those who have reached the United States have demonstrated.
Already, there are people in Guyana who believe that the outreach to the Middle East is to help the PPP consolidate its hold on power. It has not made a similar outreach to Africa.
There was the same raised eyebrow when Indian nationals were constructing the Providence Stadium. This was happening about the same time as Guyana was heading to the 2006 elections. The rules allow for people from a Commonwealth country who have been residing in this country for more than nine months to vote at elections.
A few weeks ago, Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon said that he was on the Essequibo Coast when he found out that Robert Persaud was arranging for birth certificates to be provided to some Venezuelan migrants.
Indeed, some of the migrants are Guyanese who were born in Venezuela to Guyanese parents. So they would be speaking Spanish and have all the traits of people from the Spanish-speaking Republic. Although they are Guyanese they cannot have Guyanese birth certificates.
They would be required to produce the necessary documentation to be granted Guyanese citizenship. There are no shortcuts unless the authorities have some nefarious intention. They simply cannot get Guyanese birth certificates.
However, the focus should be on the labour shortage as perceived by Jagdeo. Have these shortages been advertised so that Guyanese could attempt to fill the vacancies? And what numbers is Jagdeo talking about?
There was a time when we hired teachers from Sri Lanka because we did not have enough. Others had come and had recruited our teachers who were only keen to pursue greener pastures since we were not paying enough.
But this country ended up being penny wise and pound foolish. The imported teachers were paid better than the locals and they were provided with housing. Surely, each foreign teacher cost this country more; money that could have been paid to the locals and so keep them at home.
And while this talk about recruiting labour from the Middle East is going on, the government is not doing anything to keep the people at home informed. There are no post-Cabinet briefings to inform of what is happening.
Press conferences have become rare. And to think that David Granger was criticized for not hosting press conferences. Parliament is once again rarely meeting.
To better understand why some people believe that the institutions are under threat, just take into consideration the fact that the Public Accounts Committee, the body that examines how the government spends the public funds, has been effectively shut down.
Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, by way of letter, said that the clerk is stressed out and therefore cannot sit. He said that no other clerk wants to work with the Committee. What joke is this?
The clerk is a public servant. Which other public servant can report to his or her employer at this time and say that he or she would not be working because he or she is stressed?
To compound the issue, others say that they are refusing to work with the Public Accounts Committee. Minister Oneidge Walrond-Allicock actually stood in the National Assembly and said that those who were terminated when the government came into office had expressly stated that they could not work with the government.
Why is this different? Is it because the Public Accounts Committee is chaired by the opposition? Had the government been chairing it, would the same situation have occurred? And would Gail Teixiera have remained impassive if not deaf to the happenings?
It just goes to show.
