Guyana is either a nation, or it is nothing

Apr 05, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – As each new revelation in the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) between ExxonMobil and Guyana becomes clearer, it is also just as clear that Guyanese must prepare themselves for a showdown. It now appears almost inevitable with ExxonMobil and its partners, and if Guyanese politicians from across the board, the PPP/C Government and the APNU+AFC Coalition Opposition, refuse to budge and take the side of citizens, then there must be a showdown with them also.

We would seriously regret that, but both the Government and the Opposition now have a chance to prove which side they are on, who they stand with, what self-respect they have left. It is either that they are on the side of the foreign oil companies, or they are all for the side of the Guyanese people. This is the opportunity for President Ali, Vice President Jagdeo, Opposition Leaders Norton and Ramjattan to show what they are made of, how much they cherish this country, its peoples, and the dignity of both.

It has come to light that the PSA has a provision where Guyana has to seek permission from ExxonMobil to release the company’s Guyana expenses to the Guyanese public. This is incredible, more than a knee on the neck of Guyana. It is the equivalent of chopping off the head of this sovereign nation, or pouring acid in our eyes, or disemboweling and castrating us. For if Guyanese cannot be allowed to see the expenses incurred by ExxonMobil, expenses that they are paying for from their oil revenues, then what can they see?

If this country, Guyana’s head-of-state, or its Vice President, himself the former most senior national leader, has to humble himself and actually lower himself to appeal to the powers at ExxonMobil for approval to share the record of the company’s spending (bills/expenses) in Guyana’s oil business, then is Guyana a sovereign nation? Is Guyana a real nation, or a nation with a set of docile people for a population? Should any head-of-state allow this abomination, this most disparaging of insults, to pass unaddressed, he risks being part of what could only be interpreted as unhealthy to this country’s wellbeing?

We at this paper will be totally clear: we do not think, we do not believe, we can never agree to this country, and any of its leaders, condoning such revulsion, such an unforgivable position on ExxonMobil’s part. For any company, any corporate thinker and leader, to concoct what is nothing less than a repugnance to the Guyanese people, it would be nothing but slackness and weakness of a special kind, there must be standing up and resisting. ExxonMobil is spending our oil money, but we are not allowed to review and check if we are getting value for our money, or if ExxonMobil is cheating us, like oil companies do all over the world.

What this amounts to is that ExxonMobil presents a bill to Guyana for US$10B or US$15B or US$20B, and we must pay it, just like that, on the company’s say so, the honesty that it does not have. ExxonMobil, and any other foreign companies that think like this, that believe that they can get away with such barbarousness, should be shown the door, given a swift push out of it.

Guyanese: it is time to take a stand and get in the face of these foreign schemers, these sharp corporate operators that prey upon poor countries, and their hosts of hungry non-white citizens. Guyanese: unless this kind of angry reaction, this powerful message, is taken now, then the oil companies and their corporate friends will be free to come into our homes and throw us out of them. They are already robbing us to our faces, and without any resistance from our enfeebled, clearly hogtied, politicians. What else would ExxonMobil not do to Guyanese? Where else would this company not go in its efforts to strip us of every dollar, and then of our dignity?

Why would ExxonMobil want to hide its expenses, what does it have to hide, do not wish for Guyanese to see? This country has to come to its senses, and its citizens must be ready to fight to succeed.

Coalition, Editorial, ExxonMobil, Guyana, Production Sharing Agreement (PSA)

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