The Speaker himself joins the festivities

Feb 04, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – “Speaker “waters-down” Gas-to-Shore Motion -finally places it on order paper three months after submission” (KN January 12). Of course, he would have done so, was expected to do so. This is how cooperating Speakers carry themselves.
Even the Opposition’s Shadow Oil and Gas Minister, Mr. David Patterson, had to know so, and resign himself to this ‘watering down’ reality. Any Guyanese who thought otherwise needs more than a health check. They need to check out. Even a cursory look provides the evidence of what the Hon. Speaker of the National Assembly excised from the motion submitted by the Opposition’s Shadow Minister. It certainly doesn’t have to do with the safety and peace of mind of worried citizens. One of the clauses the Speaker in his wisdom removed has to do with ‘discussion on gas leakages and exposures in the marine environment’. It stumps us that anyone calling themselves a Guyanese would feel good about himself with his name attached to such an omission.
This takes on an even more sickly complexion, when any such leakages and exposures are understood to be “highly toxic to fish and living organisms and the ecology and which could devastate the fishing industry.” How the Hon. Speaker could jettison such a discussion is beyond us. He must be aware of the anguish in our fishing communities close to Exxon’s ongoing offshore operations, and to which those in the fishing sector that are hurting point an accusing finger. Today, it is fishing boats and the folks operating them for a living, which has mostly disappeared. Tomorrow, it could be our coastlines and the people straddling those poor communities who could be impacted negatively.
As we consider all this, and always within the context of the Speaker’s highly suspicious dropping of that clause pointed out by Shadow Minister Patterson, we can’t help but ask another question or two. Where and from whom did his guidance come? It should be noted that we refrained from phrasing this question as ‘what was the source of his instructions, since the man is the Speaker of the National Assembly. He is not one of those loud frothy speakers on some soapbox in some corner next to a place of spirits or other such heady attractions.
The best we could conclude is that since the Speaker is such a straight fellow he ended up in the wrong company. As most Guyanese know from their grandparents, that is a recipe for tragedy. Unfortunately for Guyana, the tragedy is on them, and not on the head of those whose invisible hands are smeared all over the removal of such a sensitive clause. We have a deep appreciation for the office of Speaker of the National Assembly, recognising that it is a demanding job that is largely a daily tightrope walk, while juggling grenades with the pins pulled. If that is bad, matters now get worse.
For there is a pained David Patterson pointing out to another clause inexplicably not finding favour with the Speaker, a man noted for probity and prudence of a special kind. Why would he want to discard a clause in the motion that names the United States Bureau of Environmental Enforcement (the American offshore oil and gas regulator) and a report that says there are reliability issues with the technology that has to do with “the integrity of deep-water pipelines and the detection of subsurface leaks.”
One does not have to be an engineer, or involved in any way with the oil industry and offshore drilling, to know that that has an ominous ring to it. In fact, bells are clanging in our heads. Why would the Speaker even touch a clause like that, much less get rid of it, when it could serve to give comfort to Guyanese? We regret this, but we are going to have to come down hard on the Hon Speaker here. What is he thinking? This makes no sense whatsoever. And to think that it took all of three months to get to this point. The debate in the National Assembly already looks dead in the water, as in downhill and deficient, beginning from now, and for that, we thank the Speaker.

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