What Burnham, Jagdeo, Granger and Ali Couldn’t Do — Komal Singh Can, Says GHK Lall

By GHK Lall- I am compelled to say that Guyana has been gifted with some exceptionally impressive people.  I give jackets out to whomever they are due.  Outgoing chair of the Private Sector Commission (PSC), Mr. Komal Singh gets a jacket; perhaps, a dozen of them, if he could make good on his promise.  And what is his promise?  “Come to me, I will take you out of poverty within 1 to 6 months…”  I commend Mr. Singh for having the smarts for not saying taking Guyanese out of poverty overnight.  Still, a most impressive statement-indeed, a heartfelt commitment-from Mr. Singh, Guyana’s latest miracle worker.

What else can he be?  What Burnham, Jagan, Ramotar, Granger, and even the mighty duo of Ali and Jagdeo, have experienced the greatest difficulty to achieve over the decades and years, Mr. Singh is going to do for impoverished Guyanese in the span of 1 to 6 months.  I am changing my mind, coming out and voting for this singular difference maker.

Please announce candidacy for president, Mr. Singh.  I am trying to figure out what is Mr. Singh’s idea of ‘coming out of poverty’ after giving him the benefit of using the same calendar as regular people, and not months in light years.

Perhaps, it is giving a man a job, so that he has a weekly envelope in his pocket.  So that he can buy some basics.  So that he can ignore the gnawing pangs in his belly.  And so that he doesn’t get the blues thinking of his nonexistent bankbook.  Oh, or not even a li’l box hand, because there is nothing left to throw.

It would have been inspiring if the same illustrious Mr. Komal Singh had thought a little more of poverty and the private sector minimum wage, during his time as PSC chair.  Having buried the private sector workers with starvation wages, there is Mr. Singh who has his ‘come to Jesus’ (himself) moment.  In his public epiphany of how much he now wants to raise from the dead, those Guyanese existing in poverty.  How much he is able.  How much he is ready.  And how much he is equipped to do so, with all the opportunities that abound in this land.  They do, but who and how many can fill them, function in them, and find a way to rise above their poverty level?

Guyana’s poverty level has been the bone-in-the-throat of all national leaders.  Even with oil gushing and downstream, on land, opportunities roaring, the reality is that many Guyanese still live with expectations and dependencies on an overseas barrel, and a little stipend coming through the wire.  Indeed, there is demand for shoeshine men, washerwomen, and errand boys and girls.  Yes, there are Guyanese who are willing to work, but the right fit, the so-called ‘best person for the job’, is still woefully lacking.

It could be that what the daring Mr. Singh has envisioned is to take the slow of foot, and the short of skills, and transform them into performers that can pull their weight in an economy and time that put a premium on prowess.  Prowess that the university cannot put out enough contributors who can hit the ground running.  Regarding entrepreneurship, the fields are getting increasingly crowded (competitive), which whittles away at the kind of return that Mr. Singh may have in mind.  The kind that lifts out of poverty in a hurry.  The returns are not there for new business people entrants, nor are the wages for workers, other than the highly qualified.

I will do Mr. Singh a special favour.  I refuse to detect any inference that Guyanese are lazy, sloppy, or unambitious.  For that could lead down to the old stereotypes and the reflexive demographic interpretations.  I truly believe that the outgoing chairman is well-intended, though a little short sighted and short handed.  If there is anyone in this country, who wish him the best of success, it’s me.  The reality of oil-rich Guyana s that too many have to work second and third jobs when they can find the matching opportunity, and that is just to make ends meet.

Surely, a man of Mr. Singh credentials and caliber should know so.  And just as surely, Mr. Singh must know that in one of the richest countries in the world, Guyanese are still bailing out of here by the droves.  It is not because they are abandoning prosperity, but because they are seeking relief from chronic poverty.  Guyanese rather face the daunting challenges of a new beginning in a basement, with ICE hanging around, and for US minimum wage, so they can do more than survive.  They do so because they have the energy, and the industry, to make good out of little, which so many have.

Clearly, the little that they can scrape out here (private sector and public sector wages, business ops) cannot go around enough, and get them out of poverty fast enough, if at all.  I wish Mr. Singh success in his 1-6 months can-do program and attitude.  My only concern is that he did so publicly, which has all the identification marks of a frog aspiring to be a fairy godmother.