By now there can be no doubt that both the Granger-led Coalition and the Jagdeo-led PPP, are taking the Guyanese people for fools. It is obvious that something is definitely not healthy, or right, with the contents of the oil contract. What is it about that all important contract that neither side of the isles of our political administrators would release the contract. Please understand that the contents of the ExxonMobil contract are likely to have the greatest impact on the average Guyanese, than any other single contract; before or after it. In that contract is the kind of wealth negotiations to the tune of billions of dollars, many of which Guyana stands to lose. Long after Jagdeo and Granger are a footnote in Guyana’s history, the effects of that contract will be felt. And what is not sitting well with the administrators’ reluctance to release the contract is the fact that none of the persons, who are currently involved in the discussions about oil, has any experience with oil matters. Five of the most senior government ministers snuck off to the ExxonMobil headquarters in Texas, however, none of them has any technical skills and neither do any of them have any oil experience. However, in spite of these factual realities, the current administration is steaming ahead with the voting public still blinded to the contents of the oil contract. It is clear that the PPP can come out and share some of what is nestled in that contract. After all, it was the brainchild of the Dr. Dr. Dr. Jagdeo. He must remember something of what he dictated in that contract. Some are even suggesting that, knowing Jagdeo, he would have kept a copy of the contract, either in hard copy, or electronically. But he will not say. Just like he is refusing to tell his supporters and the nation, what were the discussions that took place when the Coalition ministers met at the Mobil headquarters in Texas. Reports are now out that the ExxonMobil managers, wrote to Jagdeo and apprise him of the details of what they spoke to the Granger-representatives about. However, Jagdeo is part of the massive shell-game that the two major parties are engaging in, to hoodwink and keep the citizens of Guyana in the dark. Both the current administration and the PPP are acting like they are sure guilty of something. The nation is fully aware that the oil giant has been accused of engaging in financial, unethical behaviours in countries with similar politically and ethically unstable governments. President Granger did say last week after the visit from the oil executives that his government would behave in an ethical and transparent manner, concerning the oil negotiations. However, it is going on three weeks since and the President is yet to make any public steps in that ethical or transparent direction. It’s like they say, Money talks…
2017“…Based on that report, the IMF predicts that Guyana will earn $380M a year, in the first couple years…” Minister of Natural Resources, Raphel Trotman (Kaieteur News August 24, 2017)
Editor, please be reminded that Guyana is only receiving 2% of what our oil will be sold for. So if Guyana is receiving say $400M a year, Exxon is receiving 98 times that amount, or $40 Billion, a year.
The very sad thing about Guyana is that we have never had good governance. Or maybe I should say it another way. The successive governments that we have had have severely crippled Guyana. And what compounds the frustration of objective Guyanese, is that only when a political ideologue is in the opposition, they agree with that statement. Guyanese has this very blighted approach to our development that we can only speak truth to power when it is not “our part” that is “running things”.
Over the past 50 years, we had sat as a divided nation and literally watch as our political leaders decimate our country; especially using the self-inflicted racial divide. There is no way the PNC could have sat at the helm for 28 years and retard the progress of Guyana, if PNC supporters did not allow it. And conversely, there is no way that the PPP could have sat at the helm and raped our country for 23 years if their supporters did not allow it.
Now we have come to full circle and the possibility of the dreaded past being repeated is hover like an eliminated drone over this nation. Again, there seems to be no room for any dissenting or objective voice. It is as if one cannot support a particular party and at the very time hold that party accountable. Guyana is so stuck is a developmental morass that there seems to be zero correlation between politics and patriotism.
Guyana’s resources are being daily depleted. There resources are not renewable. Yet there seem to be such ambivalence on the part of all the governments to be forthright with the populace. It is as if these politicians know that they could do to the Guyanese what no other leaders, in democratic countries, could do to their people.
Imagine that ExxonMobil will make 98% more than the $380M crumbs that they will throw Guyana’s way and we don’t know how many years they will do that for. Every year we get $400M, Exxon will get $40 Billion. And yet the Guyanese people do not have any idea of how much Exxon plans to invest in Guyana’s oil. Neither do we know how long the contract is for. So we don’t know how much Guyana make as it relates to how much Exxon will make. And our current politicians, like the previous one they ousted, think that we don’t deserve any better.
So we are at a point where Guyana is likely to lose out on yet another deal. Another transaction where the country can be raped. Like Skeldon! Like the Marriott! Like the Berbice Bridge! Like bad bauxite deals! And like all those previous investment, where the Guyanese people were again left in the dark. When will the eyepass end?