Opinion
- Editorial- Commentary
Mary
King: Perils
of democracy
T&T has just returned to government the political
party that has been in power for most of the country's
independence. The country under its Republican
Constitution can boast that it is democratic and
that governments have been voted in fairly and
democratically. But T&T, unlike Singapore,
South Korea, Chile, Brazil has been unable to democratically
elect a government that could/would develop the
country's economy.
Economists
of repute have described the country's economy
as being in various stages of a plantation
economy, wherein the present stage is petroleum-based.
The country under this popular government became
a victim of the Dutch Disease. Even with the depletion
of these resources, accompanied by the potential
price volatility, the incumbent Government has
found it difficult, or possibly not to its advantage,
to re-construct the economy. In fact this Government
sought to allay the fears of the population that
we may run out of petroleum by religiously confirming
that there is gas out there, somewhere, and that
Chavez will exploit his gas in T&T, as our
Government increasingly depletes our proven reserves
in order to facilitate GDP growth and social welfare.
The members of this long-standing Government are
surely not economic dunderheads. They have access
to the economic development literature that defines
the growth path, for example, of the Asian Tigers
and Ireland. Yet they steadfastly refuse to design
and implement any strategy which could move the
country into economic sustainability. Ostrich-like,
they continue to talk about energy-based industrialisation,
on producing industry-ready university graduates
who are required to create nothing, of installing
aluminium smelters, other steel plants, apparently
without a clue as to how to become globally competitive
in conventional global industries. Competitiveness
is seen as offering cheap energy to FDI in the
circumstances of a rapidly depleting high-priced
resource.
How does such a government in a democratic society
continue to get the voters to support its inability
to construct a sustainable economy; its socio-economic
short-sightedness in allowing the country to
succumb to the Dutch Disease; its drawdown on
our assets, petroleum reserves, to fund massive
welfare and current account spending while the
rest of the economy is engaged in the provision
of non-tradable goods and services?
Why is it that the voters of the country continue
to retain such a government in office when even
its welfare services, particularly education, health,
the supply of water, electricity and the transport
system, are abysmally poor? Why is it that the
country tolerates a welfare system that supports
large numbers in make-work programmes, yet imports
Chinese workers for construction projects? But
even when the other party was in government their
approach to economic un-development was similar.
Maybe
the fault is democracy itself. According to the
Alexandria Foundation (http://www.halexandria.org/dward819.htm)
the basic problem is that the major decisions of "who
we go put" in power is left to the uninformed,
the fickle, the prejudiced common man and woman,
who are bereft of the fundamental ideas as to socio-economic
development.
An equally critical point is that the informed,
influential, fickle and prejudiced political
elite has no intention of allowing the equally
fickle and prejudiced commoners to tell them
what to do. The building of smelters or new steel
plants is not the idea of the commoners but of
the political elite that governs. Hence the objective
of the political elite is simply to get the commoners
to vote them in so that they can exercise their
will.
This elite satisfies the basic needs of its supporters
via handouts, subsidies etc and demonstrates how
these would be curtailed, or that they would be
discriminated against if the other guys got into
power.
The
question then is why would anyone want to run
a country, to be the political elite? Again
from the Alexandria Foundation: "Dem wid de
gold makes de rules"-though some may find
satisfaction from just being able to help.
Also, from the African experience and also our
own, funders of the parties, by state capture,
benefit handsomely from the rents earned by sale
of the natural resources and government projects.
Moma Katouzian (Experimenting in Technology, Express)
tells us that the entrepreneurs have to develop
special relationships with the political elite
so as provide the means of consumption. Is it then
that our present political system and circumstances
will not allow economic development?
Mary
King is a columnist for the Trinidad Express
(maryking@tstt.net.tt). Petroleumworld not necessarily
share these
views.
Editor's
Note: This article was first publish in Trinidad
Express, Monday, November 12th 2007. Petroleumworld
reprint this article in the interest
of our readers.
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Petroleumworld
11/ 11/07
Copyright ©2006
Gwynne
Dyer.
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