Mr President, political old talk will not work on the ExxonMobil contract

Mar 13, 2018 Letters

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Dear President Granger,
You continue neglecting my calls for decisive action on the oil contract, but because I love my country, I will not let you hide. During many years as a top soldier, you learned that “political old talk” does absolutely nothing to solve our problems.
You, Sir, to your credit, detest the habit, or at least you used to.
In Chapter 9 (Guyana’s Gangs), of your fine book, “Public Security”, on page 64, you said: “If the police want their crime fighting strategy to have any credibility, they have an obligation to be objective and to base their plans on a sound evidential foundation rather than political old talk”.
Well Mr. President, your government now has to heed your advice, and stop bluffing Guyanese with “political old talk”. We messed up badly on the ExxonMobil contract, Guyana is mortally wounded as a result, and political old talk will simply not do.
Minister Harmon is of the view that the contract with ExxonMobil is “final”! Oh the brutish, ridiculous arrogance of that man! How reminiscent of Lord Bharrat Jagdeo. When even ExxonMobil itself may be expecting you, Mr. President, to soon make a firm announcement about the need to revisit an illegal contract that has been so widely rejected by all Guyanese, Minister Harmon arrogantly says that the contract is “final”!
Is he your boss, Mr. President? Instead of doing a little research and seeking to provide intelligent responses on this utterly shameful issue, Harmon chooses political old talk. Take a minute, Mr. President, and ask Minister Harmon to give you just one reason why the contract is legal. If he can’t respond intelligently in 30 seconds, fire him!
Minister Greenidge has said publicly that all Guyanese who criticize the contract are mindless “jokers”. Even ExxonMobil is amazed; or are they? Is there a perfectly rational motive that Minister Greenidge may have that we are ignorant of? Time is the great detective.
Here again, Mr. President, is no less than your Minister of Foreign Affairs, choosing political old talk over more appropriate behavior, on such a crucial matter for our people.
And of course Minister Raphael Trotman is on record as saying that Guyana got quite a good deal with ExxonMobil. He knows better than all the international oil experts who are saying that Guyana got absolute garbage and wasted uric acid in that Contract! Instead of taking responsibility for his blunders as the subject Minister, he went down the road of political old talk, describing that cesspool of a deal as a good deal.
Minister Basil Williams is also guilty of this same silly political old talk. I guess they have not read your book, Mr. President, to know your philosophical and ideological attitude towards political old talk?
And to add insult to injury, Mr. President, your Minister of Business, Dominic Gaskin, recently took the cake for shameless apology and posturing, when he was literally spitting into his own hands, and into our faces, and dissing our gold industry, with political old talk! In a vain, clueless search for comparisons with our gold industry that could possibly favour this abominable agreement, Minister Gaskin ended up being the laughing stock of the entire oil Summit.
I hope you read, Mr. President, Nigel Hinds’s brilliant analysis of Minister Gaskin’s incredibly ridiculous shenanigans. Oh, how ExxonMobil must be laughing at us, Guyanese.
ExxonMobil never had it sweeter anywhere in the world. They are amazed to see Ministers of government, big men, big university graduates, former seasoned diplomats and Ministers of Finance, a Minister of Business, a top lawyer and a former Army Major turned top lawyer, singing for their company, louder than any ExxonMobil CEO, louder than Ms. Brasington, who’s paid by ExxonMobil to sing its tunes. I don’t hear Ms. Brasington singing like our Ministers.
The time for political old talk is over, Mr. President. You said so in your own book, many years ago, during the disastrous, evil presidency of Lord Jagdeo. There is work to be done for pay received.
Your Ministers are very well fed by the taxpayers and do not pay house rent, electricity and telephone bills and transportation costs, that every other Guyanese citizen, except yourself of course, has to pay. We Guyanese would have thought that in exchange for such luxurious living, that the very least your Ministers would have done was to properly read Guyana’s first contract with the world’s most powerful oil business corporation, ExxonMobil. Kaieteur News warned your government with countless letters.
Our heroes, including Burnham, Jagan and Walter Rodney are turning in their graves at this abomination. I am in Russia these past few days, pining for my country. In New York, two weeks ago, I had to hang my head in shame.
You made it very clear in your book that “political old talk” is foolishness. The time to end the political old talk has expired, Mr. President, and, by the way, it is now long overdue that you deliver a proper address to the nation on this matter.
Sasha Persaud

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