Civil society moving forward doggedly

Sep 26, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – We have to learn to manage our expectations where civil society is concerned. There are sentiments in some quarters of Guyana that civil society is either too silent, or that it is too aligned with the PPP/C Government, or that too many of its members are too much about self-enrichment.

In fact, a strong case could be made that, while all those elements have occurred to some extent, there are sections of civil society that are increasingly making their presences felt and their voices heard. Though currently small in size, they are growing in appearances and the actions that they are taking.

The most recent instance of civil society on the move is evidenced in a couple of citizens, Fred Collins and Godfrey Whyte, taking the bit in their teeth with a court challenge against the local Environmental Protection Agency (‘Guyanese take EPA to court to ensure Exxon covers all costs for oil spill disaster at Liza Phase 1 Project’ -KN September 25). There is concern of what it could mean for the nation if such a spill were to occur. Some citizens are not sitting down to wait for the PPP/C Government, the Vice President, or the EPA, to come to their senses and put the interests of Guyanese first. Locals have grown tired, distrusting, and disgusted with the schemes and resistance of the Government, its leaders, and key institutions in doing right by them in this growing oil sector.

Similarly, Attorney-at-law, Seenauth Jairam, SC, has gone to court in an attempt to compel Esso, the local subsidiary of ExxonMobil, to obey Guyana’s company law requirements, and file full accounts. It is the same concern that has prompted another group of worried Guyanese to file another court case challenging gas flaring at ExxonMobil’s offshore oil operations. More and more Guyanese (groups) are highly troubled by some of the glaring deficiencies that they observe going on in the expanse of ExxonMobil’s local operations. From the things that it does that are or could be harmful, to the things that it ducks from doing, and is allowed to get away with, on every occasion. This is traceable to a combination of vacillating political leadership, and a failure of institutional will, with the EPA standing as a monument to all that is wrong with this ballooning oil sector. We are with them, and all the other civil society groups that have taken matter into their own hands, and are seeking remedies using the legitimate channel of Guyana’s courts.

Another such civil society group on the move is ‘Article 13’, which has maintained a relentless, influential presence on matters of oil, and more. Just recently, ‘Article 13’ wrote the President pressing him to publicise the supporting documents on Government’s payment of taxes for ExxonMobil, pursuant to the 2016 contract. As matters stand, the Audit Office issued a clean opinion on the books of the NRF (Oil Fund), despite no tax dollars being paid into it. The surprising absence of such payments, and the fact that the Audit Office missed it, raises serious questions that call for answers, straight answers.

This is what another newer civil society group by the name of ‘Our Wealth, Our Country’ (OWOC) is also interested in, and as such relate to what the PPP/C Government is really doing to check that ExxonMobil and its partners do not cheat us in the billions in expenses that are dumped in our laps. The Guyana Government must show more interest in, Guyana’s leaders must be more alert to, how the oil companies operating here can trick us right before our faces. More Guyanese must also come to grips with what is at stake with this oil. It is too important to our future to be left to any government and any set of leaders to lead the way alone, for that has the markings of waiting disaster. Oil is too tempting, too self-enriching, to leave to Politicians and their cronies. More citizens must in more civil society groups must recognise the extraordinary times in which we live, and the surrounding circumstances, and get involved. Guyanese either grab their oil destiny with both hands, or they risk extending forever their pauperised state.

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