The PPP knows what it is doing and it is criminal

Jan 22, 2021 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

I refer to the articles titled, “Gas to shore project requires detailed environment study -Vincent Adams” and “Gas-to-shore project…Int’l lawyer challenges Pres. Ali to prove economic soundness and release studies” (SN and KN respectively, January 17). Some thoughts follow.
First, there is no Guyanese (for emphasis: no Guyanese) who knows, understands, and has the most comprehensive reservoir of expertise on matters related to oil, like Dr. Vincent Adams. It is telling that the PPP government wants nothing to do with him, leading to his ouster and marginalization. The president and oil minister say that they want to do our oil business transparently and cleanly, yet they hide, make themselves small, are struck dumb and rendered invisible on most matters related with this oil. If this is cleanliness, then they need to be bathed repeatedly in caustic soda. That I think will fail, since the PPP’s leaders are so riddled with inconsistency and the shadowy over Guyana’s oil. They give off a bad odour with what is wrong and in how they go about our oil affairs; it is a chilling, troubling business. At best, the leading men dissemble; at worse, they are about deceptions and slyness and missteps. I think of Nigeria’s Abasanjo and Angola’s de Santos, and that is where I sense we are with oil and our leaders.
Dr. Adams called for a detailed study of the Wales gas to shore project, which I interpret to mean exhaustive. Like the Payara report, Guyanese shouldn’t hold their breath, since it falls on deaf ears, committed positions, and nothing doing, as the bottom line. Ms. Janki challenged the president to release the studies; and, again, I venture that both are wasting their breath, time, and ink, because the president and Vice President have no intention of doing any such thing. That is why they hedge and beat hasty retreats to escape any attention, to thwart some accountability. Quite candidly, I would be surprised if any studies at all were done, which may explain why the PPP dodges and distances itself from any delivery of documents or disclosures of anything. Like I have said repeatedly: this society has been gifted with serial political opportunists. And if by some chance some pretense at a study was done for the Wales project, then it would have been lacking in serious substance, which is another good reason for the PPP leaders to jump all over the place in wonderful Guyanese imitations of Australian kangaroos. Whatever they did (if anything) will not pass serious scrutiny; it is more than likely that it got some borderline outfit to give what it needed as cover.
It is why I say that the PPP government does not know the meaning of clean governance nor ethical leadership. Examine the record on oil at any length, and it becomes undeniable that the party and its powers are about deceiving and concealing and pulling the wool over the eyes of Guyanese. It gives citizens $25,000 COVID-19 cash relief to keep them quiet, while it engages in stealthy treacheries that are sure to cost this country. The party luminaries have nothing to show to Guyanese interested with what is really going on with this oil, so they play these distorting games, where they get rid of people who can help and keep things in check, while they ignore the strident calls to come clean, to be transparent. The president himself is so transparent that if a 1,000-watt searchlight may be lit in his face, and he would still come across with the dimness of the darkness of midnight; it is the world he inhabits and cherishes.
The actions and inactions of the president and the Vice President with Guyana’s oil convey a sordid tale of what leadership is about in this country. It is all about setting up a programme that devastates the aspirations of gullible citizens. Citizens had better come to grips with the reality that if some pittances-information and cash, are thrown their way, that that is all they will ever get. Regarding projects executed cleanly, loans spent honestly, and oil arrangements made with the country foremost, those had better be written off and from now. This is what the political deceivers in this land are, through how they mislead us. The government is not alone; it has made sure that the opposition has been lured and snared to be part of the dirty doings. And because the opposition is so pathologically corrupt itself, that was the easiest of attractions and efforts.
Where that leaves us is pre-oil: all hopes and dreams. And to that I add this epitaph: better find eternal rest for those. For they are not happening; not with the kind of unscrupulous people we have for leaders and captains of Guyana’s oil commerce.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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