Stamp out corruption

Dec 16, 2021 Editorial

Kaieteur News – December 9th saw a gathering of Guyana’s growing crowd of oil hustlers. It was mainly of the powerful one percent of people in Guyana, who corral and control the wealth of this country. It was of the rich government products they receive, which overflow with promise. It is of the downstream oil business that they are so well-positioned to snare with the ruling party’s approval. This was a predator’s ball of many known for shady business enterprises, which can serve as context and depth to what the United States Ambassador presented on the International Day of Anti-corruption. Its law enforcement dossiers are flush with reports on many of them.
The announced, and much made of, position of the Government of the United States of America is that governments the world over, including Guyana’s, has a responsibility to stamp out corruption whenever such rears its ugly destructive head. The message from the U.S. Ambassador, Ms. Sarah-Ann Lynch, highlighted “constructing a legislative framework that deters corrupt practices.” AND for Government operations to be “transparent, such that citizens and the media can provide oversight and hold officials accountable.” AND “procurement processes that comply with international anti-corruption standards ensure a level playing field for investors.” AND “private sector actors must also answer for any role that they play in corrupt practices, and when choosing private sector partners, it is advisable to choose the reputable over the most convenient.” AND “a robust civil society and free press are critical to holding leaders responsible for their actions.”
We will be honest and admit that we have often wondered what happened to the United States, as embodied by the presence of its energetic ambassador to this country. We had gone a step further and asked ourselves whether United States agents in Guyana were so much in bed with Guyana’s governing leaders that they saw no evil, heard no evil, and had no evil to speak to, because such was none of their business, and for fear of being accused of meddling.
However, when Her Excellency spoke during the observation of the International Day of Anti-Corruption, there were two thoughts that came and took centre stage in our deliberations. The first was whether this was not another sham stance on the part of the United States, because of its linkages to ExxonMobil, one of its very own and highly prized children. But because her words were so pointed and penetrating, as quoted above and carefully separated by us, the second thought that surfaced said that there was some meat and muscle to what she was saying. To put it differently, there were many sharp signals contained in those well-chosen words and spaces into which Ambassador Lynch delved.
To be clear, the Americans are nobody’s fools, and will not let anybody pull the wool over their eyes and cloud their minds. They see and hear what is going on here; they have their own deep intelligence sources, some local, some foreign. They also have the many vast wisdoms that come from over a century of being an almost uncontested world leader. If anyone has a single doubt, we repeat some of the areas touched upon so delicately, but tellingly, by Her Excellency, Sarah Ann Lynch. What deters corrupt practices, plus citizens and media oversight, plus official accountability, plus procurement practices, plus robust civil society and media presence.
Those were not random, but deliberate, even provocative in the places they went and the worms they stirred. In the simplest terms, we think (and we give the Americans the benefit of the doubt today), that what the American Ambassador was saying to leaders in the Government of Guyana is that we know what is going on, and we neither agree with it nor like it. As two examples singled out, procurement and the press speak for themselves. The Americans have to have seen how attempts were made to intimidate and muzzle this newspaper, through lawsuits and a range of dirty tricks. How procurement is a running joke, and how segments of civil society were bought out.
Time will tell whether the call to ‘stamp out corruption’ was sincere, or part of the sucker’s game in full flight here.

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Stamp out corruption

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