During the colonial days when Britain was responsible for this plot of land called Guyana, the financial aid came from that country. But that aid came at a cost. Sugar was shipped out as was lumber, and most importantly, the brains.The education system was geared to produce people for the Mother Country. The examinations were all British. What the students wrote in England, that was what the locals wrote. There was Oxford and Cambridge out of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; there was the London Certificate of Examination; and at the lower level, the College of Preceptors.And those who did well boarded either a ship or an airline for England. To this day there are many who now say that they have Guyanese roots. They came to prominence in the area of politics as Baroness Amos; sports like Chris Lewis and Michael Carberry, and singers too numerous to mention. Of course there were the people who did so well on television like Ramjohn Holder and Norman Beaton.

Independence came and with the Cold War in effect aid began to come from the United States. As has been the pattern, many Guyanese then headed there, to the point where just about every Guyanese now has a relative or family member in the States. There are large Guyanese communities there to the point that the officials must take notice.
Now Guyana is about to enjoy Chinese patronage. The economic crisis forced many of the traditional countries to cut back on their aid programes but the Chinese, with one of the fastest growing economies, stepped in. It started with trade.What people began to notice was that any money was not free money. Guyana had to find something to make the trade meaningful or suffer to market its primary products. The nation did not say much when the earlier colonials exploited this country, because these colonials were more or less home people. We spoke the same language and the countries were accessible.With the Chinese it is a different kettle of fish. There is the difference in language and culture. But the money is needed and so this country enters into numerous trade arrangements. Unlike the other countries where the aggressive media expose just about every deal, the Chinese media are rather more in the background.

The government is not pressed to disclose anything, because from our point of view there is no hesitation to jail those perceived to be rocking the boat. This is what makes deals with the Chinese so testing to the ordinary person. Where we were exposed to private investors, with China we have all the companies that are all state owned for the most part.So we had BaiShanLin which everyone, given the tradition, expected to be a private company. There are very few private companies, and even if there are, the Chinese government has some hand on it.For example there is the online shopping company, Alibaba. The founder insists that it is all private, but he was quick to admit that the Chinese government had approached him for some favour (that is an understatement). He told ‘60 Minutes’ that he did what was requested, but he was quick to say that he asked for no compensation and suggested that he would not be happy granting many favours.So we come to the most recent brouhaha.

The local media singled out BaiShanLin because it seemed to be breaking all the rules of Guyana. That company came during the tenure of the People’s Progressive Party government. We were not aware of the agreement, but we did know that the company was granted large swaths of Guyana’s forest.Investigations revealed that there were a lot of questions to be asked about the timber extraction process. It then surfaced that the company failed to honour some of the agreements it had entered into with the government.

But there were other companies in Guyana. In fact, the Chinese had spread their wings in the region. They were in Suriname, Jamaica, Antigua and Trinidad, spending money on a lot of projects. Perhaps these countries in the region were aware that they were dealing with the Chinese government but with different faces.This would explain the problems with Minister Joe Harmon and the local media. There had to be government to government discussions, so when the media railed at Harmon for intervening in the move by the Guyana Revenue Authority to seize some high-end vehicles, it was not an individual decision. But the media did not know this, so they zeroed on Harmon. For his part he said nothing. He thought that he had no reason to say anything.

And this situation explains why the newspaper that former president Bharrat Jagdeo controls, did not get into the imbroglio. Jagdeo knew what was going on; he did not see the need for any fuss, because he understands the way of the Chinese.The news is now out. The Chinese government by way of a state-owned company will take over the operations of BaiShanLin. This will for certain continue to be a government to government arrangement. Any indiscretions by the Chinese company will be the indiscretions of the Chinese government and we know that this government does not take kindly to criticisms.

Meanwhile, the Granger administration will have to do its damnedest to keep explaining to the Guyanese people any indiscretion by the Chinese companies, since we locals are comfortable with private companies.
When all is said and done, it is a case of Guyana needing the money but for certain the people will not stand by and watch the resources exploited. The Harmon issue made this clear.