Glenn Lall, others deserve high praise for exposing the folly of both the PNC-led Coalition and the present Government

Feb 17, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – Guyana is now hosting the International Energy Conference and Expo 2022.

We note with interest Presentations by His Excellency, President Irfaan Ali, and according to the order of events, the Prime Minister Mark Phillips and Vice President in charge of oil and gas sector, Bharat Jagdeo.

The formality of the Prime Minister being on stage will not be lost on any Guyanese. Prime Minister, Mark Phillips is a likeable and charming fellow but some of us characterize him as the character of the Spook who sat at the door. It’s a story in the US of a wealthy white company who in response to criticisms of racial discrimination, appointed a black person , made him Vice President, limousine chauffeur and all the trappings of office, but the chap was not required to attend Meetings and be part of the decision-making process.

I note from the Programme, that our two closest neighbours in the oil business, Venezuela and Trinidad and Tobago did not make the list of persons to address this conference at the Marriott Hotel. However, Mia Motley of Barbados, an excellent political figure and the President of Ghana, are on the programme. Clearly, a Public Relations process. Of course, Suriname is compulsory.

Editor, please note that Ghana ranks 49th among the oil-producing countries, 49th. Trinidad, just next door, is next in the 50th ranking, Venezuela is 12th in ranking, Suriname is 82nd in the ranking and Barbados 105. Note that Guyana’s population is the smallest except for Suriname and Barbados and therefore, the proper distribution of money from oil resources should make every Guyanese from the cradle to the grave extremely comfortable.

Listening to the Glenn Lall Show on Kaieteur Radio, one gets the impression that the Government is as the Bible states, ceding our birthright for a mess of pottage. We may not always agree with all he says and the way he says it, but he is right that we have been given a raw deal. We compliment Glenn Lall for his courage and sense of purpose and nationalism. I again, urge all Guyanese, irrespective of race, colour or political affiliation to protest this rape of our God-given natural resources, and let no one suggest that we must not protest.

Protesting has helped in the main to produce a better world and great nation states. If there was no robust protest by the American Colonists and the American Civil War, there would have been no great United States of America.

If Emmeline Pankhurst did not protest, women would not have won their rights to vote in the United Kingdom. If Cuffy, Accrabe, Damon and Quamina did not protest, slavery would have been institutionalized and taken for granted.
If the German Theologian, Martin Luther did not protest, there would have been no dismantling of the religious strangle-hold by earlier Popes. If Martin Luther King (Jnr.) did not lead peaceful protests, the Jim Crow Laws which legally made Black Americans an inferior entity would not have been erased.

The non-violent protest of Mahatma Gandhi helped to begin the dismemberment of the British Empire over which they boasted ‘the sun never sets.’

So Guyanese, let us show our objection to this million dollar ‘pappy-show’, taking place at the Marriott Hotel. From all the information available, it appears to many of us that in the next four days, the Marriott will be a well orchestrated talk-shop or at best, it will be to decide who will cut the cake and determine how it is to be shared. The Conference is unlikely to deal with the gut issues of concern to the Guyanese masses and those who take our Independence seriously.

What is egregious is that an inquiry suggests that representatives of half of the nation’s population will have nothing to say at this Conference and we are being taken for granted by a Government that trumpets the idea of One Guyana; an inconsistent and tragic approach.
Glenn Lall and a few others deserve our high praise for exposing the folly by both the PNC-led Coalition and the present Government.

In my little way, since the arrangements were being put in place, those members of the 2015-2020 Coalition would recall I expressed a concern that until and unless we can speak with one voice, Government, Opposition and Civic Society, we will be playing as we are now doing into the hands of those who have a matchless machinery of not only to Divide and Rule but to ensure that a few Leaders and their acolytes are comfortable while the majority of us peep around the huge legs and find ourselves comparatively poor and end up in dishonorable graves. On this score, all Guyanese at home and abroad must stand up like men and not mice.

To Guyanese who are reluctant or afraid to speak up, I remind them that the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln, remarked, ‘To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.”

I hope succeeding generations will not deem those who are afraid to come out and speak as cowards. Those in the public sector, all of them, policemen, firemen, soldiers, teachers, nurses, etc. Lend your support because the figures show that doubling your salaries now is feasible this year. Pensioners can also have their pensions doubled with the huge sums that are now available. I say to our Leaders and citizens, too often we take the socio-cultural environment created immediately after Independence for granted. For example, this week in two States in India – in Karnataka State and Mandya City, two Muslim students became the face of resistance for young Muslim women wearing hijabs, or headscarves in classroom. Meanwhile, campuses appear to be polarized with Hindu students turning up wearing saffron scarves and a policy to dissuade Hindus from converting to Islam and Christianity.

We have avoided such discrimination in Guyana, since Independence by those who first hoisted our Golden Arrowhead. Let us build on that foundation of tolerance and oneness and take our country of less than a million souls into that glorious sunlight of Peace, Plenty and Love.

The independent media has been doing its bit and in particular, I thank the Kaieteur News and Stabroek News Editorials, and let me remind you again of this wisdom that the pen can be mightier than the sword.

If I have to write daily and speak everywhere, I beg that the present Administration learn from human errors over centuries. An unbelievable truth of history is the way intelligent Leaders fritter away golden opportunities. Simply they fail for whatever reason to learn from the lessons of history. Oil and Gas must be the concern of us all.

Regards
Hamilton Green