OP:ED Our leaders must stand up, fight wisely for Guyana 

Nov 24, 2022 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – Two leaders from this region created quite a stir at COP27.  They were Prime Ministers Mia Mottley and Gaston Browne of Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda respectively.  They are not Guyanese, but I could not have been prouder of them.  They represent the best of what national leaders must be about; for that matter, what I would applaud in any leader, from the highest religious and civic ones to the lowest and tiniest communal and group ones.  The two Prime Ministers are what leaders must put first, stand for, fight for, even die for and never letting up.

The lady and the gentleman are fearful of drowning from climate change effects, of their people converted into an endangered and vanished breed, unless something is done to give them hope, something to which they can hold on, and weather the storm.  It did not matter to them that their audience of rich, powerful political peers, but financial superiors, were playing their old games of public piety, while purses remained tightly shut.  I think that it was thanks to their strenuous efforts, vocalized so sharply and powerfully, that there came about that last second (almost literally) commitment to a “loss and damage” fund.  All that foolishness about liability were merely about the cleverness of the sophisticated and the stubborn; those who accept no blame, distance themselves from the devastating consequences of their hundred years war against the rest of the planet. Mottley’s and Browne’s efforts (and others) have borne fruit, though it will take some time for the meaningfulness of the fruit to develop.  I discern a simple lesson in this.  Speak to truth and reality.  Speak fearlessly.  And speak consistently.  There is yielding, no matter how limited and how late, and the results that follow help to make a difference for those who are in need, are vulnerable, and are worried sick.  Thanks to both of them: Prime Minister Mottley, Prime Minister Browne.

One of my biggest hopes, my longest dream, is that our tandem of national leaders would present that same power, an identically driven nature, to wrest something of value for Guyanese, despite us being told that such is not possible. They said that there was no science behind climate change claims; they also say something similar to us here in Guyana with sturdy claims about sanctity of contracts, and how some matters should be left alone.  Climate change has done its damage because powerful, cunning, and greedy men dragged their feet, employed their tricks.  Here it is sanctity of contract that has started inflicting its destructions on the psyche of Guyanese, because there is a President and a Vice President, who curl themselves into many shameful tangles to avoid doing their duty, when they shrink from saying the Guyanese people are hurting.  The Guyanese people are in need. And the Guyanese people must be made whole, by what is right and fair and just being done for them.

I wish that Guyana’s leaders, President Ali and the Vice President, were to present people like me some of what is looked for, except that they prefer other ways, which speak poorly of them.  I would be the most delighted citizen to stand up (even if all alone) and shout about how well they have done.  But only when they manifest the potency of energy, the demanded ferocity of purpose, in doing their utmost for those who put them where they are.  I didn’t vote for them, but they represent me, and all those others who did or didn’t.

Our circumstances are different from Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda, from most of the rest of an oilless world.  But our expectations, our wisdoms are quite similar.  We have oil.  We want production (I do).  We need money.  But we must have safety.  We must have trusted partners.  We must have real partners, and not corporate predators who are mostly treacherous snakes in suits.  President Ali and the Vice President must demonstrate that they are made from different stuff.  Give me something to hold onto, to ring a bell of celebration for a job well done; leadership that is impeccable.  I am ready to do so.  Just give me something for my fellow Guyanese.  There is the fullest appreciation that President and Vice President live in a new world.  it is one constrained and propelled by oil.  A delicate balance is demanded, unusual sensitivity.  Yet there are so many assets in our hands that give us great strength.  Geopolitics.  OPEC+ politics.  Demand and supply.  Changed circumstances.  We must deploy them wisely, unflinchingly.  More!  Now!  It’s war.

During elections, PM Mottley came here and blew us away.  Took no side, took no liberties with truths, cultivated no hedges, spoke and walked straight, often sharply so. It must be so also with this oil of ours, as piloted by President Ali and the Vice President, with a stout hand from the Opposition Leader.  That would be some Thanksgiving.

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