Rumours and promises for 2020

Dec 29, 2019 Features / Columnists, My Column

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The year is ending pretty much as it began, with accusations in the political arena. Indeed some of the accusations are intended to gain headlines and they will.
Recently, there was the comment that Minister Khemraj Ramjattan had an account with Capital Bank in New York, and that he used this bank to channel US$5 million. Needless to say, the accusation was picked up by two news entities, one of which actually approached Ramjattan for a comment.
Ramjattan simply said, “Booy”, a sign of his exasperation at the accusation. The media entity reported that Ramjattan would neither confirm nor deny.
Reality is that with the focus on money laundering, any transaction the likes of which Ramjattan was said to be conducting would have brought the house down on his head. And the house would have been the developed world that is pushing to stamp out money laundering.
Late last week, Jagdeo said that he ran with an unconfirmed report and that he was prepared to say sorry.
There is a saying that because of the word sorry, little boys take the opportunity to mash the toes of big men.
There is the belief in the media that people should respond to any allegation. Even Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo said that Ramjattan should have put the rumour to rest. That is surprising, since anyone could start a rumour and expect the target to respond.
Generally, most of us would simply ignore them, because we know that they would soon die down and another would start. It happened with President David Granger. He was said to have built a mansion soon after he acceded to the presidency.
The suggestion was that he took funds from the national coffers to enrich himself. Someone in his camp did say that the Head of State moved into a house left by his late brother.
Then there was another rumour that President Granger dipped into the national coffers to build a swimming pool. This did not take root. It was started in New York by Opposition Leader Jagdeo when he addressed a gathering of his people.
Recently, Jagdeo said that if President Granger had hired an international crew to investigate the foreign accounts of present and past politicians there would have been no need for such rumours.
It would seem that in the coming days there will be rumours upon rumours to distract from the real issues of development.
But there are the real issues. The oil companies would be increasingly in the news, especially since oil has begun to come to the surface. Guyana was never prepared for oil, so whatever laws it has in place are inadequate.
There is the view that no new law would impact ExxonMobil, but this would have to be tested. Laws are laws and nothing is above the law. If a contract determines some things that are outside the law, a citizen could move to the courts and have that contract nullified.
Of interest is the fact that neither the government nor the opposition seems inclined to tamper with the contract already in place. There are aspects that could be challenged, and I am certain they would be.
But for now Guyana has arranged to sell its share of the oil. That means money for the coffers. But even then, there is the threat that the companies that opt to sell Guyana’s oil at this time would be blacklisted.
According to the opposition, the government should not sell anything, because it is in caretaker mode. This would mean that any decisions taken would be nullified if the opposition gains office. Yet I fear this is all idle talk.
I remember when the government changed in 1992. There was a contract to sell the Guyana Telecommunications Corporation. The new President, Dr Cheddi Jagan, opted to review the sale. He did the same thing with the contract that established Barama Company Limited.
In both cases nothing changed, because one investigation found that the sale of the telephone company was above board. In fact, the finding was that Guyana got the best offer.
But there were some changes. One involved the Essequibo Coast road. The result was a substandard surface, all in the interest of saving money.
Another contract that the new government visited involved the Soesdyke-Linden Highway. That road was built in 1968 to last twenty years. It was due to be reconstructed, but the new government decided that it would be resurfaced.
Today that major thoroughfare is a far cry from what a highway should be. At one stage it was a death trap and indeed, people died.
So I expect that nothing would change with what is happening in the oil sector if a new government accedes to office. The same can be said for sugar. The previous government did not have the courage to do what was necessary in the sugar industry.
To talk of reopening the closed sugar estates is just talk. That will not happen. To create 50,000 jobs is also laughable. From where would the 50,000 come?
Meanwhile, the race is on to ensure that Guyana is protected from any untoward occurrence in the oil sector. There was a mud spill of which the country knew nothing. It could have been worse. It could have been an oil spill.
Fortune favours Guyana even as it struggles to capitalize on the newfound opportunities in oil. There is talk about bringing the natural gas to shore. The government has said that it is looking for a point to land the gas. The gas would do wonders for the economy. It would power machinery currently relying on fossil fuel—to be exact, oil.
Trinidad is capitalizing on its natural gas, albeit a little late.
At the same time, the private sector has expressed a desire to get involved in the gas sector. Gas would be far cheaper, so electricity bills would fall significantly. New machinery would emerge to help process foods.
Guyana once had a canning sector, but the high cost of electricity caused this sector to collapse. The result is that Guyana is now importing all its canned goods.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper)

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