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The NRF Bill/Law
Encouraging Events, Disturbing Developments…
By GHK Lall
Kaieteur News – So much has been said and written about the Natural Resource Fund Bill/Law (NRF) that I paused for a long moment, then decided one more word may mean something, sometime down the road, when we look back past the wreckage. That is, if we can.
The NRF Bill has been called a lot of things, such as rushed and controversial, among others. I call it for what it is: the handiwork of the criminally inclined from the well-populated political roosts and lairs. This would not be ordinary crimes by ordinary white-collar criminals, but what amounts to the equivalent of financial treason. In the NRF Bill/Law, I see a betrayal-maybe the biggest one yet – of this country and the hopes of its peoples.
The PPP/C Government and its leaders say to Guyanese: trust us, we have the best interests and welfare of the citizens of this country at heart. Anybody who believes that for one moment should be put in chains and solitary confinement for a long time. For there has been no time (for emphasis: no time) when this PPP/C Government (or the ones that were in its name before) having been responsible for the treasury of this country, and the rich business of this country, has not conducted itself in a most foul and odious manner. Put its leaders close to cash and a rank covetousness takes complete hold of them; a few in particular. The record of their oversight and handiwork is clear, and it stinks to the high heavens, that even the angels are forced to cover their faces and retreat. When PPP/C leaders in government get near to money, they become radioactive; and they go to tremendous lengths, unbelievable lengths, to be inseparable from the honeypot.
They are so mentally and spiritually corrupt – including the religious ones – that they waited for the biggest holiday season in this country, when Guyanese are busy celebrating in the time-honoured ecstatic and delirious manner, to throw the die. It’s Christmas. PPP/C leaders were so calculating and diabolical that they bided their time then dropped this bomb of an NRF Bill on unsuspecting Guyanese during the Christmas Season of all times, and forced its passage in the last week of 2021. One scripture calls that ‘like a thief in the night.’ The head of this, and the minister of that walked around on stealthy tiptoe then pounced with vigour.
Then, the President assented, in total secrecy, to what is now law. On one of the biggest oil law developments in recent years, it is first recklessly rushed, and last assented to in secret. Because I am attuned to the limited nature of the leader’s mental range, I can assert that he will say that it was of transparency, because he surrounded himself with some friendly eyewitness props. I alert my fellow citizens that the very first circumstances with the NRF Bill, then about to be signed into the laws of Guyana, was characterized by the presence of people of a certain calibre, and of what was executed under the cover of darkness. Both are early warnings of what is in store with the perverse piece of legislation.
What is now the law vests all the power in the President and his carefully chosen cronies; there is a closed cabal from which to choose. I can name them from right now. It should be noted that I said two sentences ago “vests all the power”, because it does. Three out of five, and it is over. The arrangements are already made by the time the Board sits, and every man jack knows his role, the motions he must go through without blinking too much (or laughing behind his hand), and the preordained paths to where all roads terminate. The investment committee is part of the joke, this shell game; and I have a fair to solid idea of the names already settled upon, and on which this travesty and obscenity will be carried aloft, while burying the dreams of impoverished Guyanese. Well, the orchestra has been struck, and this country’s Titanic moment will be upon it before hapless citizens know it.
(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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