Global Witness reveals its true intent in withdrawing controversial report

Jan 16, 2021 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

In a remarkable twist, Global Witness, which says it “works to break the links between natural resource exploitation, conflict, poverty, corruption, and human rights abuses worldwide” has finally revealed what their true intentions in Guyana have been. Simply put, it is to stop oil production altogether.
The controversial report Signed Away, claimed, among other things, that Guyana is set to lose as much as US$55 billion from its deal with ExxonMobil. The reasoning behind this claim was heavily criticized from the moment the report was released since arriving at such a conclusion could only have been done by using mere projections and assumptions, the same of which can be done to show Guyana in fact stands to gain just as much, if not more.
But most notable are the reasons Global Witness puts forward for withdrawing Signed Away.
“It is no longer enough for Global Witness to demand that oil and gas businesses operate in a more transparent and accountable manner. We firmly believe that to save the climate, we need to work with others to achieve a just and equitable phase out of fossil fuel extraction,” Global Witness is quoted as saying. In other words, the NGO’s objective is to champion the cause of ‘leaving the oil in the ground’ which is untenable for a poor country such as Guyana that needs every cent of revenue from its natural resources to fast-track its development and lift its citizens out of poverty.
The NGO also admitted that the foundation for its conclusions in Signed Away was based on “overestimation of potential economic benefits from oil production”. This really means that Global Witness had no clue what it was doing and used faulty hypotheses to arrive at highly sensational conclusions which it then presented as fact.
Every Guyanese knows that to transform this country into an economic powerhouse where every citizen has an opportunity to enjoy a higher standard of living, oil money is not only needed, but is surely absolutely necessary.
Global Witness has exposed itself as having little to no credibility. The NGO has been looking to use Guyana as a guinea pig for its anti-oil and anti-development agenda.
Surely, Guyanese far and wide will continue to reject this insanity.

Donald S

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