The Vice President presents figures only he is privy to

Mar 30, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

A couple of familiars are proving true with the nation’s oil and its Vice President. The first is that when deception is starting point, then deception must continue: it is deception upon deception, and in many clumsy forms, leading to the totally untrustworthy. The second is whom the gods wish to destroy, they make mad first. Guyanese should study their VP, and decide on his deceptions, and the brainless state to which they drive him.

Oil does so. The first deception with oil was silence. It is a subtle one, but becomes too bloated, when the pregnant silence extends. On the lady from Canada and Payara, the VP decided that his best bets must be silence followed by more silence. So, he sealed his gums and went mum; but the more he did so, the louder his silence spoke. Something wrong, many things, and the more silence that he engaged in, the more apparent it became that serial deceptions were afoot. I offer serial deceptions because this was characteristic of this same VP, then president, with all those big-money projects in prior PPP governments, when he was chief deception officer. As has come to light, some secret partners (likely money launderers) reap the dividends, while ordinary Guyanese struggle to get NIS payments. That connection should not be lost.
The former President (now VP) was silent then, and deceiving back then: he didn’t tell the whole story; the real story. He bluffed first, and when that failed, he tried to bludgeon into submission, which is exactly what he attempts to do today with oil and that completely crass business about the gas-to-shore project being a ‘no brainer.’ He has made a living making puppets of many Guyanese, now the shoe is on the other foot: Exxon makes him into a puppet, a stooge, one of those blubbering brainless that we see on the streets and from whom we shrink. Exxon explored Guyana, and ended up exactly where it wanted to be. It is why that Wales project is a ‘no brainer’ to him and him alone. It is ‘no brainer’ because he says so: without tendering any basis or anything of substance. He presents figures, the origins of which only he is privy to; the man is an Olympic figure skater.

I urge Guyanese to compare their dealings with the mad men roaming our streets. Those unfortunates believe they are so slick, so smart, so sophisticated with the stories, which they share, so as to get some trust and a dollar donated. It is where the VP is today: any rickety story will do. Truly, the gods first make mad those marked for self-destruction. Gold and Midas. Oil and Guyana’s VP. He clutches at any frail straw. He swings in the wind, but runs out of rope and wind to swing some more. The VP’s deceptions prove it.

Yours truly,
GHK Lall