Guyana is now the fastest growing economy in the world. “But with regional pressures and environmental concerns, how should the oil revenues be spent – and will the windfall be fairly distributed among the population?”
A penetrating, revealing, thrilling million-dollar question; I would say the multimillion-dollar question. It will be one that the BBC’s World Questions series brings to a Guyanese panel. The panel consists of the PPP Govt’s Dr. Ashni Singh, WIN’s frontbencher, Ms. Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, Ms. Ayodele Dalgety-Dean, activist & businesswoman and Founder & Managing Director at Blossom Incorporated and Sispro Inc and Mr. Clinton Urling – Secretary of the Private Sector Commission. What to say? What to expect? Caution: many may take offense, though none is intended. Calling it, as I see it.
Dr. Ashni Singh is a good choice for the PPP, besides Dr. Bharrat Jagfdeo himself. If allowed a full head of steam, he will go into one of his budget marathons. The timekeeper had better monitor him, for Dr. Singh has a lot in his head about oil revenues, and how well it has been spent. How fairly distributed. How all Guyanese are happy with the PPP. I would never call a credentialed man like Dr. Ashni K. Singh, Guyana scholar and scholar in many other pursuits, a fabricator, exaggerator, or pretender. He has his script; he reads his lines. If permitted, run all over the question.
WIN’s frontbencher, Ms. Tabitha Sarabo-Halley, will be more than a benchwarmer during the BBC’s question-and-answer proceedings. She will try hard, come well prepared, but would it be enough to counter Dr. Singh’s avalanches, he the man who patented the murky and tricky “national development priorities?” With humility and respect, I have my misgivings, in spite of Ms. Sarabo-Halley’s best efforts. It isn’t that she will be overmatched. It’s simply that Dr. Singh is too well-armed. He is not known as Dr. Ashni “AK” Singh for the laff of it. He’s a serious man, and he comes seriously weighed down with numbers and how well the PPP did when compared to the PNC. Ms. Sarabo-Halley will have her hands full, even if she gets in a word sideways.
Ms. Ayodele Dalgety-Dean was unknown to me, until the memory did a backflip, and the award of two oil blocks surfaced. All I will say is that I hope that neither Dr. Singh nor the PPP will stoop to such cheap propaganda as to hold aloft Ms. Dalgety-Dean as a powerful symbol of the sham known as One Guyana. I cannot pronounce too much about what Ms. Dalgety-Dean brings to World Questions session, but it shouldn’t be shabby at all. After all, she is described as an activist and businesswoman and Founder and Managing Director of not one, but two companies. Four hats on one head is a stellar achievement in a world that still proudly has thick glass ceilings overhead. Can be challenging not merely in terms of gender, but also that double negative called the color barrier. Godspeed, Ms. Dalgety-Dean. Do put in a good hour’s work on the show.
Mr. Clinton Urling is an old friend. Until he lost his natural inclination to friendliness. Must be something I said or wrote. Then, I note that he is the Secretary to the Private Sector Commission. No explanation needed. He knows his business, but what of the business of Guyanese? Recall that segment of the question: “windfall…fairly distributed.” The ancient Clinton Urling would jump up and holler hell no! The modern one is sure to find a maneuver that facilitates some distancing from the posture I affixed to him. Scorecard reads: Dr. Ashni has company. Poor Sarabo-Halley came for a question, then some more, and ended up in a gang war.
To add more fuel to the fire, I have my own question. Why not a rep from the PNC on a question of that magnitude, far-reaching implications? I have in mind businessman, family man, party man, and the new Guyana man, Dr. Terrence Campbell. Why not he? What did the PPP do to knock he and the PNC out of the BBC question ring? Dr. Singh is too lily-white for those kinds of sleight-of-hand. He has Cabinet colleagues who dive that low for a living. Give a good accounting of self, everyone. Be sure to share the real Guyana story. All of it as it impacts all of Guyanese.
