H@rd Truths by GHK Lall – BHARRAT JAGDEO: THE MAN WITH THE KEYS TO THE OIL KINGDOM

Oct 13, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – Guyana’s oil champion, Bharrat Jagdeo is the man with the keys to Guyana’s oil kingdom.  He does right and Guyanese will be alright, everyone.  He hasn’t; not to any material degree.

Not with elements that would persuade people who think. Not with those who understand how multinationals operate. Not with those knowledgeable of the kind of governments and leaders that they have had, coexist with side by side.

Others have lambasted him for demanding for himself, the honorific of ‘dr.’ before his name. I go the other way: if that gives him energy and astuteness to battle Exxon for more benefits for Guyana, then I deliver ‘dr.’ for that edge. Unfortunately, addressing him as ‘doctor’ has only brought more of the deceptions that are deep down. The high ground gets slick, but the luxury of sliding down is not mine.  It is my duty to stick to Brother Jagdeo, not stick it to him.  What’s the point?  How do Guyanese rise?  Sticking it to him in his time of political menopause does not help the Guyanese people, fixes nothing, leads nowhere.

But Dr. Jagdeo has to stop manifesting how much he is more for Exxon’s interests than even Mr. Alistair Routledge. In Guyana’s Oil Caesar, Bharrat Jagdeo’s hands reside the keys to Guyana’s oil kingdom, not Exxon’s.  He has not made much use of those powerful keys that Guyanese have given to him; in fact, he couldn’t have done worse.  Why give away so cheaply, chief, the gifts of the children?  Even more glaring, where is the fight in this leader, who can be prickly and pugnacity itself, when pressed on his postures and decisions that have failed?  Though aggressive with Guyanese disbelievers, Dr. Jagdeo is passive, willingly docile, when Exxon is part of the conversation. This is how the gatekeeper for Guyanese dreams turn those dreams into ashes, and then turns against those who say: why?  How could this be?

Guyanese are not fooled by manifesto claims reengineered to give the appearance of fulfillment. Hell no; not when oil projects are meekly surrendered for nothing, and bargaining trumps are turned into useless jokers. I say nothing about the jesters cheering the VP, they are his idea, his problem, his revelation to Guyanese of the road he has taken, continues to travel. Instead of informing Country Head, Mr. Routledge that he is insulted by the tricks of Exxon, Brother Jagdeo insults his fellow citizens who direct his gaze to the real Exxon, what it is doing, and what kind of partner it is proving to be. The sharpest word that I have for Guyanese who look favorably on what Exxon is doing here is that they belong to that special breed of citizen called self-enslavers.

To the Vice President I recommend getting tougher with Exxon.  There is the risk that the ICJ could start leaning a different way, or the oil money in that New York bank could be frozen.  I would take pride in that Guyanese put up a fight, no matter how much they lose, fall from American graces.  It is fighting for this birthright, or living a life of qualified serfdom (at best), or mental and economic slavery (at its worst).  I urge everyone to study the Vice President, who I now hold aloft as the main exhibit of what mental slavery looks like.

Turning the keys to Guyana’s oil kingdom the other way, Dr. Jagdeo, is to diminish the vision of Exxon, and derail the efforts of the company to subjugate the spirit of the six or ten races that makeup this country’s population.  Currently, everything (rules discarded, projects approved, expenses hidden) are handed to Exxon on a platter, and without so much as a little something more for Guyana for its continuing hospitality, its runaway generosity.  Guyana must fight more, which the VP is not doing, and Exxon must be made to get the chills, as to what this country is capable of, but with which weapons the VP has not brandished.

Vice President Jagdeo knows all of this, and much more of all the oil areas where he has looked pathetic, a regular Guyana ‘po boy’ for a leader. He knows, too, that every decision and non-decision that flow from his lips have been about what either conceals matters from Guyanese; or what aids and abets Exxon’s profit spigot gushing with this country’s wealth.  Guyana cannot be this fabulously changed creature in the eyes of the world.  Not while Guyanese below the middle rungs of the economic ladder are materially untouched, and remain mired in daily survival battles, as if there has been no major oil development here.

Rather uncannily, the Vice President has bent the oil keys put in his hands, thus halting any forward movement under the deception and self-protective blanket of sanctity of contract.  When he should be holding Exxon’s feet to the fire, he fires away at Guyanese whispering to him that his slip is showing. All of it.  Never has one man been given so much power, who made so little use of it, and impoverished so many.

(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.)

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• Bharrat Jagdeo, GHK Lall, Guyanese, H@rd Truths, Oil Caesar

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