Latest update January 30th, 2025 6:10 AM
Aug 26, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column
Kaieteur News – It is strange, enlightening, the slugs that result from standing up for country and the poor, downtrodden, and afflicted. Indirectly, I have heard of the tempers originating in the lavender and lace circuit about being anti-Exxon, then anti-PPP, even anti-American, and possibly in some corners, anti-Indian. Though none of this is ever said to the face, it would not surprise if in ‘high’ church circles, there isn’t the label of antichrist. When there is principled distancing and differing from what many hold dear, the jaundiced insults rise with a roar. My response is the same: the damnations are a badge of honour. Thanks for the favour.
I take these denouncements one by one, and the first thing to be said is that they come with the territory, even though it is Guyanese interests, and Exxon’s also, that I labour. Believe it or not, Exxon’s interests are intertwined with, always part of the mixture of, local visions and more. From my perspective, to be anti-Exxon is to want the American company out of here. I assure Mr. Routledge that there is no such interest, no such vision, nary even contemplation. I will take American on any Sunday (warts and all), but only one that comes with proper offerings in hand for Guyanese. Neither two percent it is, nor playing games with billions in expenses now subject to the equivalent of judicial seal. Exxon would still flourish, and all Guyanese could get more. If Exxon were to pony up a couple of percentage points more, then it would cease to be the centre of Guyanese rage and resentment. There will only be corrupt Guyanese politicians on whom to set sights, concentrate impassioned energies.
It would be the hallowed American Way for Exxon to deliver what is fair, what is saturated with straightness, possibilities. Fairness and straightness are the lynchpins of the American Way, and enough of both have been personally experienced, for instilling deep down not wanting things oil any other way. Not Chinese. Not Russian. Not European. I’ll take American, thanks; being otherwise would be un-American. It is why I laff at, (the mocking spelling should capture the derogatory manner with which I respond to) the pathetic claims of those fellow travellers, who have only the desperation of ‘anti-American’ to cloak their weakness, their limp stick attempts at denigration. America has taught its native born and incoming hopefuls, about the hallowed founding tenets of truth, justice, and lifting up the underdog. There is no deference. It is the American Way, and for me, there is no other. It is the lesser of most evils, and as Winston (definitely not the local one) said about democracy: it is the worst form of government, but still the best thing around. Any questions (or slurs) about where I stand with Exxon and America should have been put to bed by now.
Regarding being anti-PPP, that is the sly ruse and refuge of the limited; the all-purpose solution to the many party crimes. Though there are some things-real big things-to differ from the PPP, the bigger crisis is the state of its leadership. Any Guyanese who said to me that President Ali would be so full of what is hostile to Guyanese interests, a prompt running them out of town would have resulted. If anyone had dared to say that Vice President Jagdeo (a former head of state) would have turned out to be so headless and toothless and spineless where oil is concerned, I would have branded him or her a repugnant Venezuelan mole. No! Not my two brothers entrusted with leadership powers in this time of what should have been Guyana’s first glorious gleaming in this the dawn of its Oil Age.
For sure, Guyana glitters for Chinese, Indians, Africans, and Europeans, thanks to Drs. Ali and Jagdeo. But Guyana’s oil does not shimmer and glimmer for the rank and file in Guyana, compliments of Excellency Mohamed Ali, and the Almighty Barry who floats like a bulldozer. With a twosome like that, we should be ruling the waves of the Atlantic and the jet streams above here. Instead, Guyanese are mired more in the mud and muck, and it is all because of the puniness, the gutlessness, of these two remarkable national boys of our own entrusted with so much, who refuse to rise to real leadership men.
If being for what accrues to the benefit of voiceless, powerless Guyanese denounces as anti-PPP, then I stand guilty. There are huge numbers of Africans and Amerindians making up the disempowered and the economically deprived. Alongside of those fellow citizens, there are poor Indians also used and used and used again for political leadership ambitions and objectives. I know some of them from shared times shared. They are not abstractions nor voting considerations for me; but peers and brothers without.
If being about their wellbeing brands as anti-PPP, or anti-Indian, then let the blows rain. If standing for the walking wounded in this country is deemed to be anti-PPP, then the plea is guilty. To be a contrarian has its limits; but to be for country has no restrictions for me, and there is no power in Guyana to deter.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)
Jan 30, 2025
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