New Year and I can see more sniping at Granger

Dec 31, 2017 Features / Columnists, My Column

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The New Year is hours away and there are some things that will come with it. One will be an eclipse of the moon. Some people will enter the world of work for the first time. They are the first group of people who would have graduated from the Bertram Collins College for Public Servants.
There will be some who because of over-exuberance will attract suffering. But for the most part there will be many who will simply give thanks for seeing another year.
This is the time when I do some retrospection. For example, I remembered the dawn of 2000. Computers were expected to crash because of the change from 1999. That didn’t happen.
I had friends who partied the last year away only to die before the dawn of this one. Life is about dying, so I could only conclude that the next phase is only a corner away.
What is constant is the political divide. For as long as I have been around there has been the political division. It has always been us or them. The line between us and them was never determined by ethnic considerations, and for that I always say that there is still hope for Guyana.
On Thursday, the government decided to release the contract it signed for oil production. The occasion was bigger than I had expected. I thought that the contract would be posted online and people could read it and arrive at their own conclusion.
Instead there was a formal release at the Ministry of the Presidency. The political opposition was invited. Seats were provided, but those seats remained empty. I am not going to guess the reason. Perhaps they could not bear the thought of walking into that building because of the pain of losing the elections in 2015.
It must have been like a man who, having lost his wife, is invited to her second wedding. He would not be comfortable to sit and hear the marriage officer say, “Now you may kiss the bride.”
Be that as it may, the contract was released with all the explanations that seemed to be necessary. I heard that this contract was a slight modification of one that was signed in 2012 by the previous administration.
Prior to the release of the contract there were many comments, ranging from the document being a giveaway to it containing secrets that the government did not wish to reveal. I went as far as to ask Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo about his reason for keeping the 2012 contract under wraps. There was some mundane answer and a challenge for the present administration to make it public.
This coalition administration said that the threat posed by Venezuela with its superior army and fighter jets was enough to force Guyana to be careful with its disclosures. Of course there are those who say that the threat is over-exaggerated. They contend that no country would sit by and let Venezuela bully Guyana.
The reality is that even if they do not sit back, Venezuela could wreak serious damage on Guyana before there could be any intervention. I still remember Venezuela escorting an oil rig out of Guyana’s waters and the rest of the word sat back and did nothing.
Minister Raphael Trotman said that ExxonMobil was brave enough to undertake the work in the waters and for that, Guyana was thankful. However, the critics refuse to factor in that measure of confidence on the part of ExxonMobil.
They see the oil that has been discovered and they say that Guyana could get much more than is on offer. That could very well be the case, but no neophyte could get the best of any deal with an expert. Minister Trotman said that the Guyana negotiators might have been experienced, but they sought the best in the field to do what they could not do.
I read some of the comments by Christopher Ram and I blinked, because I saw a measure of nitpicking. For example, in the 1999 contract, the then President Janet Jagan released more than she should to the oil company.
Jagdeo, in support of that decision, said that had she not done that, oil might not have been discovered. It was a case of the end justifying the means. But Ram is blaming the administration for not correcting what Mrs. Jagan did. Perhaps the government should have reclaimed the excess blocks, but starting from where? The blocks with the oil?
He said some other things that the authorities may address if they feel so inclined and knowing Ram, he would not mount a challenge
. I had expected him to challenge Trotman or someone from the oil company to a public discussion. That has not happened. I learnt that the US$18 million signature bonus was not an offer by ExxonMobil. Rather, it was a case of Guyana using precedent, seeking a sum to cover legal expenses in the move to the International Court of Justice. Further, contrary to the critics, this money is not going to come from the expenses and placed among the recovery cost. It is what it is—a bonus.
Guyana, for its part, must play catch up. It must start training its people and there is going to be money for that. It must begin to develop resources to cope with the coming of oil. Already some entrepreneurs are building facilities to capitalize on this discovery.
I know that Mr. Charles Ceres with his knowledge is already in the mix. He was sought out because the oil company would find it cheaper to deal with Mr. Ceres’s company than to recruit a company from North America.
The Granger administration is in the invidious position of being asked to explain every action, something that the Jagdeo government never had to do because of the dictatorial attitude that prevailed. When asked to explain something, that request was simply swept aside.
I still remember the anger at the group from the islands that were among the first to be approached in connection with the Marriott project. The news came out and the government, through Winston Brassington, was angry. In fact, that group was discarded because it talked.
Similarly, when news of the airport expansion project came to Guyana, there was anger, because the government had said nothing to the people.
And even after that, there was anger whenever questions were asked. To get that contract released was like pulling teeth.
The Amaila Falls contract was another. I do not remember the strident calls for the release of the contract. I have seen no analysis of that contract.
There will be endless discussions on the oil contract, but not one of the critics will seek to have their views challenged. It is always easy for a little boy to stay behind a fence and hurl bricks at a grown man.

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