The President’s elusive phantoms

Dec 24, 2019 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

The President’s address to the nation on Friday, 20th December to declare that, “Guyana has become a petroleum-producing state” did nothing to stir the enthusiasm of the Guyanese people. His plan to issue a proclamation to declare “December 20 as “National Petroleum Day” does nothing more than to expose his penchant for frivolity – “pomp and ceremony” that has been a hallmark of his presidency.
He seems to be of the opinion that the proclamation “will serve to remind citizens of their duty to protect the country’s patrimony and to ensure the sustainable management of the finite hydrocarbon resources.”
The President seems oblivious of the fact that no consultation was done with the people prior to his Government signing a contract that Guyanese in general and the rest of the world considered, covertly, in favour of Exxon and its partners. This attempt by the President to pass a burnt out torch to the people, which he feels, “will serve to remind citizens of their duty to protect the country’s patrimony” is indicative that the president is of the opinion that the entire nation is suffering from progressive amnesia.
Now that first oil has arrived, we no longer hear of Green State Development Strategy from the President, the sloganeering has now been changed to, “Decade of Development, 2020 to 2029”. “The good life for all” and “no one will be left behind” – two indispensable preconceived phantoms of the president that the people had waited five years to catch a glimpse of, were certainly not forgotten by the president in his address to the nation.
Unmindful of the CCJ decision that his Government has been in a “caretaker status” since December 2018, on account of the NCM, the President continued to speak of a” Natural Resource Wealth Fund Act” passed in January of 2019 without any consultation with the people, and in the absence of the opposition, who openly vows to rescind this Act, should they be given a mandate by the electorate.
The President said, “Guyanese, I assure that your Government will manage petroleum revenues prudently.” If this statement is by any means visionary from the President – given what had transpired with the “signing bonus” and the PSA with Exxon and Tullow Oil – I am convinced that a majority of Guyanese would hope that he doesn’t envision himself at the helm of this, “your Government” that he spoke of.
Rudolph Singh

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