President’s New Year’s message big on promises, but short on substance - US based activist

President’s New Year’s message big on promises, but short on substance – US based activist

Jan 06, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – United States (US) based Guyanese activist, Dr Jerry Jailall, has criticized President Irfaan Ali’s New Year’s message, saying the speech was big on promises, but on substance.

Dr Jailall noted that while Ali promised the nation would see acceleration in several sectors; he failed to address the need for acceleration for one key area– oil and gas. According to Dr. Jailall, the President must take ‘accelerator’ lessons from Exxon.

Dr. Jerry Jailall

He noted that while royalty and profits are still low and contracts have not been renegotiated, Exxon and friends “are moving full steam ahead to extract all our oil to make their shareholders filthy rich.” He added, “while the deal is lopsided in Exxon’s favour, everything is in high gear to extract our oil resources at full speed, while our current crop of sellouts in the Government and Opposition vow they will not renegotiate. The PPP’s promise – their ‘Manifesto Contract with Guyana’ – to ‘review and renegotiate’ during the election campaign has no ‘sanctity’.” They tricked us.

Jailall stressed that without renegotiation, Guyana’s oil will be finished and Guyanese would still be a poor people, and future generations destitute. Dr. Jailall added, “Exxon is moving ahead speedily with logistics for projects whether they have the appropriate approvals or not. Government is using a useless statistic that is misleading when they say we have the fastest growing economy, when what is meant is that Exxon’s profits are growing and accelerating to the extent that they make enormous windfall profits, and they pay no taxes on their income. “

Additionally, the US based activist said that the President must make sure he presses the accelerator hard to establish modern systems to improve transparency, governance, accountability, disclosure of all agreements involving substantial natural resources and projects, audit of oil accounts, removing all inequities among the 10 regions.

He said, “Press the accelerator to fix all water, health, flood control, power generation, educational inequities flowing from a useless NGSA exam, rampant crime, efficiency in the court system (appointing a full complement of magistrates, judges, and appointment of a CJ and Chancellor.”

In his 2023 message, President Ali stated that the Government has massive plans to further advance the country in the New Year. According to him, while the country will continue to experience economic growth, more policies will be rolled out to ensure that more of the population benefit. “In 2023, we shall roll out policies, programmes, and projects to ensure that the fruits of this growth are more equitably shared amongst our population. Our primary goal is shared prosperity, one which is characterized by reduced inequality. In this regard, no region, community, or village will be left behind in our quest to create a ‘One Guyana’,” he said.