Stabroek News
June 2, 2001

In an address to the students in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Guyana on the 20th April, 200l captioned "Production and Development in the Caribbean: The human dimension" Mr Claude V. Chang said that a market economy is an unnatural form of social integration compared to the culture- based more traditional societies of Asia, Africa and Latin America. The support institutions of stock exchanges, a legal system governing contracts, individual property rights and banking, he said, have evolved over time from the need to regulate, arbitrate and promote trade and commerce within a clearly defined framework based on a culture of individualism. "In a market economy the individual is supreme because consumerism, the backbone of a market economic system, must be promoted at all cost".

Bent on throwing off the mantle of colonialism, he continued, many newly independent states adopted a policy of socialism and self sufficiency, the latter through the process of import substitution. Since this was practised for some time attitudes reflecting this system persist. "Work in a socialist economic system does not have the same urgency as in a market economic system where the profit motive reigns supreme. In the case of Guyana, dependency on the state still informs our attitude towards work and production processes. This is because a generation has grown up believing in a shared-wealth approach, with the state being the ultimate provider".

Our attitude to the development process reflects our upbringing, he suggested, and no amount of textbook learning can compensate for ingrained cultural practices in the short term. The danger is to produce a bunch of "articulate incompetents". Without the experience of a market economic system from which to draw, "the tendency would be to regurgitate hollow phrases". Hence we read and hear of foreign direct investments, an entrepreneurial class, efficiency, competitiveness and globalisation "without being able to think the process through to its final conclusion".

The switch to a market oriented system from a culture based system takes time. It is therefore unfair to castigate such societies as backward, Mr Chang contended. Coming out of colonialism in the 50s and 60s there was a `reactive nationalism', adopting an approach to governance and production different to the former colonial ruler. "We tend to forget this in our condemnation of the immediate post-colonial regimes". Mr Chang referred to systemic factors that influence production such as small populations and technological backwardness. "We fail to identify the kind and level of education that is needed, evidencing the breakdown in the thinking process to which I referred earlier. A country without the absorptive capacity for an educated work force or specialist training will necessarily lose such work force through emigration. The outflow of teachers and other skilled persons to other countries evidenced this phenomenon".

Mr Chang's essential focus in his talk was on the inadequate analysis we make of our problems. He is clearly concerned about the likely impact of globalisation and suggested seeking niches based on our strengths. "One hears calls for a "dynamic entrepreneurial class" to mean creating a private sector that is focused on competitive manufacture. This, I can only attribute to a regurgitation of the notion of Western competitiveness without a proper understanding of its underpinnings, coupled with an unwillingness to accept the structural limitations implicit in small societies".

He concluded "We should seek to build upon our strength, however unexciting it might be, and not delude ourselves into thinking that we can compete against well-established economies in a global economy".

There are clearly some valuable insights here. Unfortunately, many of the industries, on which we have long relied, like bauxite, sugar, gold and even forestry, our traditional `strengths', have themselves been under threat for some time, thus posing a need for fresh thinking and new investments. But, as Mr Chang states, we must learn to think the problems through in terms of the supporting skills, structures and institutions that are available or need to be created.