Countrywide protests needed now to get fair share

Jul 02, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – We have begun to put something before fellow citizens, for which we believe the time has come. The time has come for what our front page is calling for, which is “A country wide protest needed to get our FAIR SHARE” (KN June 30). We have been prompted by what is going on with our oil wealth to make this call on the last day of the first half of this year. The plan is to keep pushing for this to grow and grow throughout the second half of 2022, and beyond, if such becomes necessary. If we don’t do this, then this oil will leave us behind, with only the big-shots and big political bosses reaping its riches.
We didn’t want to be put in this position, but we have no choice. If this is what it takes, then this is what it will have to be. COUNTRY WIDE PROTESTS MUST BE THE APPROACH TAKEN BY GUYANESE FOR GUYANESE TO GET THEIR FAIR SHARE OF THEIR OIL WEALTH. Leaders do nothing for us, other than lie to us and play tricky games with us. The APNU+AFC Coalition left us with the misery that is this monstrous oil contract, and that was only the beginning.
As most Guyanese know by now, the PPP/C came into power with its scornful dismissals of the same contract that it rightly called lopsided, but which it has done nothing to correct its many horrible provisions that haemorrhage this country and the prospects of its peoples.
Leaders of the PPP/C, when they were in the political Opposition of this country, raged against it, and vowed about how much they were going to do to change it, to be rid of its draining, destructive features.
Today, those same leaders, now with their hands fully in control of the levers of power in this sovereign nation, are behaving as they are shackled to the contract, and enslaved by it, meaning that they can’t do anything about it. Today, they are careful to qualify their plans and limit them to ‘future developments’ and ‘developing a model PSA,’ which are nothing but camouflages for their cowardice in confronting ExxonMobil, the American oil superpower. The Vice President, the leader in charge of oil matters, is playing delaying games that cost us dearly, while Exxon races away without interruption with large cargoes of our cheap, light, and sweet oil. President Ali must stop his Vice President from dragging him down.
This is the best oil deal globally, but only for Exxon, its partners, and their people. In contrast, we live with the worst contract in existence, which President Ali himself, called the ‘wrong end of the stick.’
There is no shortage of admission regarding all the things that are wrong with this criminal oil contract, but there is no abundance of preparation by the Vice President to confront Exxon and lay down the extent of our demands. We are not begging for more, we are demanding more.
And since our leaders have been about retreating and hiding from any confrontation with Exxon, then we, the Guyanese people, owe it to ourselves to get the best for ourselves by answering this call, and coming out to be a part, and do our part, in countrywide protests for our fair share. Protests can be of immeasurable value, because only when done properly, then they make local political leaders and foreign corporate leaders know that we mean business, and that it can’t be the same business as before.
Protests must be peaceful and for constructive ends. Protests must be inclusive to capture our collective rage against those who rob us and deceive us. Protests do not target our fellow Guyanese. Protests aim at leaders and foreigners who trick us and cheat us. Guyanese need to get out of their homes and get out on the road and get in the faces of those using our own oil to hold us hostage. Let there be no standing for this nonsense anymore from anyone. Let the call and charge ring out from here: let there be countrywide protests for our fair share of our oil. Citizens must come out in numbers for real change.

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