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Guyanese: make this Friday October 27, resonate in history 

Oct 27, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – The day is here, and every Guyanese should be out there in front of the Office of the President.  Guyanese must make their voices heard, and let their presences send strong messages. Leaders are not believed, politics is ruining the oil gift, and it is time for the will of the people to prevail.

For starters, the protest is about 120 oil blocks to be relinquished in days.  Those blocks must be returned to Guyana, no ifs, ands, or buts.  Guyanese must manifest how important this is to them, as many of them try to reconcile being so rich, yet so hand-to-mouth.  From 09:00hrs, Guyanese will show who and what they stand for in the numbers that come out.  It is either that they are for themselves, their families, their communities; or they are for the politicians that they revere as gods.  Politicians who have proven to be false gods, the worst of failures.

Those 120 oil blocks belong to Guyana, and must be handed back in the time identified.  Guyanese can benefit from having those blocks in their hands, by disposing of them constructively.  The terms of the contract, which all politicians love to make their religion and obey its sacred commandments, must apply to the fullest, i.e., to the letter.  There can be no grounds for any wiggling and the many other contortions that have come to feature prominently in what they say and do.  No grounds can be found for wiggling by political leadership, none should be allowed.  There are no two ways about this, and this is one of the objectives of this Day of Protest: ExxonMobil Guyana must hand back those 120 oil blocks, each and every one of them, and not a day later than such should be.

Moreover, the Day of Protest has ring-fencing of oil projects as another boiling issue.  What has been approved recklessly and thoughtlessly by successive governments is gone, and cannot be revisited.  It is unfortunate, but a tough and costly reality that must be lived with, accepted tightlipped.  For new oil projects waiting in the pipeline for approval, however, it is a different story.  In a nutshell made of steel, those projects must be ring-fenced, with the sixth one being the first.  The Day of Protest has ring-fencing as another nonnegotiable objective, and it is one before which ruling politicians must be made to bow.

They can shout and stamp their feet with venomous fury, but at the end of this day (Friday, October 27th), let the passions expressed drive home to the world how Guyanese will not rollover and give over their patrimony without the fiercest fight.  The latest word coming out of America is that the shareholders of Hess Corporation and Chevron have expressed their anxieties over intensifying calls for renegotiation of the 2016 ExxonMobil contract.  Those shareholders are concerned about the fat, sweet, rich returns on their investment directly or indirectly in Guyana oilfields.

The people who have already benefited handsomely from their Guyana investment are alarmed over renegotiation ‘noise’ coming out of Guyana, and other places around the world.  The majority of Guyanese have not benefited anywhere in comparison from the oil that is their birthright.  It makes no sense, therefore, for Guyanese on the losing end of a dirty oil deal to remain silent, to be content with piffle and pennies, when the shareholders of ExxonMobil and now Chevron and CNOOC gorge themselves on porridge, partridge, and pudding of the richest sorts. It is worth noting that the pickings from Guyana are so rich and sweet that Hess Corporation’s CEO, Mr. John Hess is holding on to the family shares, plus is poised for a director’s seat on Chevron’s board.  Thus, the Hess family is set to continue benefiting from Guyana’s oil in more ways than one.

With the above in mind, all Guyanese should be quietly assembled before the Office of the President on this Friday, October 27, 2023.  It is about oil blocks and ring-fencing, and then some more.  It is for the future and the richness that is the inheritance of every Guyanese.  Make this Friday, a day of standing and reckoning, one that resonates through history.

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