Time for the ‘Bouncing Bharrats’ clown show to end

Nov 30, 2023 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Guyana, a blessed land was given to Guyanese by our ancestors who shed tears, sweat, and blood to achieve this. Little did these ancestors know that Guyana would be set upon a path of destruction because of selfish, scampish, and sellout leaders. Guyana is now in a border issue with Venezuela and is also being exploited by foreign exploiters, notably ExxonMobil. At a time when strong leadership is required to tackle these issues, listening to the words of leadership and their mouthpieces clearly indicates Guyana is doomed.

Internationally all eyes are on Gaza with the Israel/Palestine fiasco.  Notably, the Ukraine war seems to have been forgotten. It should be noted that Russia was willing to sign on to the Minsk Peace Agreement which was originally accepted by Ukraine, but Ukraine’s leader refused and listened to the West and EU and entered into a war with Russia.  This has resulted in hundreds of thousands of people killed, millions displaced, hundreds of billions of dollars unaccounted for, and the breadbasket of Europe destroyed. All Russia wanted was not to have a NATO missile base on its doorstep. The vintage US enacted a blockade on Cuba for this same reason, but only the US can take action for its security, no one else is allowed to. The minute Guyana got into the oil business, Venezuela started an influx of Russian military advisors, and military equipment to Venezuela, what was Guyana’s leadership reaction to this, I have no idea. There is now a repeat of the Ukraine war brewing in Guyana.

Venezuela’s Maduro asked President Ali for a meeting when the new oil block auctions were announced, but President Ali shunned him which no sensible leader of Guyana should have done.  Now Venezuela’s soldiers are amassing on Guyana’s borders in Regions 1 and 7. The US is talking big to its oil-producing suppliers now because they have a stranglehold on Guyana’s oil.  If the likes of Russia, OPEC, and Iran decide to take action, then Guyana has to run to the US for protection, and for this protection, Guyana’s 14.5% would become smaller. Locally, as the most important issue is oil and ExxonMobil, we hear nothing from the APNU nor PPP/C on this, with the PNC delaying its congressional elections, and the PPP not holding one in years.  With no viable third party to challenge for political power, Guyana is stuck with these political leaders through 2025 and 2029 guaranteed. This is allowing a king unchallenged to rule over the PPP/C, the government, the oil sector, the mining sector, and almost everything else. The king says the PPP/C has a long-term plan for governance that APNU didn’t have, this seems to include approving more oil projects with no more benefits for the Guyanese people. Neither the PPP/C nor APNU have given Guyanese a comprehensive plan on how the revenue from oil and other resources will be collected, used to improve the lives of Guyanese, and how the foreign corporations will be held accountable, Instead, all we hear is the bashing of each other as if this is designed to keep Guyanese off-track from the real issues.

Scholars of the Dutch disease or resource curse have concluded that the number one reason for this curse is not bad contracts, but the lack of accountability, and transparency that is derived from leaders signing contracts in secrecy with the intent to deceive their people for their own personal gains. Since the oil business kicked off in Guyana, everything was done and continues to be done in secret, from the issuing of exploration licenses, allocation of oil blocks, signing of the oil contract, giving waivers/clauses/concessions to ExxonMobil, hiding of Exxon’s expenses, and no account of funds received/spent from the NRF oil fund. The PPP/C continues to be the frontrunner in Guyana’s political arena thanks to the inept and lackluster attitude of APNU, yet the PPP/C have chosen to shoot themselves in the mouth by resorting to unscrupulous behavior instead of the right things. The PPP/C is using street and online thugs to attack criticism of their below-standard governance.  President Ali spent over $300,000 USD for a trip to the US to counter spokespersons at a Black Organizations conference held in the US. Guyana now has 10,000 independent swing voters who don’t fall for the old “aapanjaat” politics and have changed election results, as Ex-Presidents Ramoutar and Grainger learned.  The PPP/C understand this and are now rushing to give foreigners voting rights to counter the independent voters, the foreigners may vote for the PPP/C now, but what happens when in the future they start to vote for and send their own candidates to parliament to represent their issues, they know “aapanjaat” too.

The pittance for the oil Guyana receives still will make politicians sell their own mother for power to control that money. The PPP/C can avoid all of this unscrupulous behavior by assembling a team of experts to manage the oil sector correctly and take Guyana where the country should rightly go. With all of this happening, Exxon continues to pump with more pumping planned ahead, now leaders who were silent on all the oil issues have now raised their voices with Venezuela’s border claim, and maybe many of those who were getting ill-gotten gains by staying silent on the oil exploitation have realized an escalation with Venezuela can make the value of their ill-gotten assets diminish. I can’t pick who is more dangerous for Guyana, ExxonMobil or Venezuela’s Maduro.  The choices Guyana now face: give up the oil for Essequibo or give up Essequibo for the oil.  The current way Guyana’s leaders operate looks like Guyana may lose both. The PPP/C is now subjecting Guyanese to the Bouncing Bharrats, whenever Guyanese ask important questions on Guyana’s oil operations, with one Bharrat bouncing the questions to the other one and back, both continue to spew the nonsense Guyana has no investment in the oil, so whose oil is the raw material for the business? Whose infrastructure and services Exxon use that they can’t provide? It’s time for the clown show of the Bouncing Bharrats to end, so pack up the circus tent and pull the curtains. The VP continues to spew nonsense that he is managing the oil sector as per industry standards, yet he can’t name any country’s standards he is using and continues using this to defend his below-substandard performance in managing the oil sector. If the head of the oil sector doesn’t want to answer key questions on oil, like renegotiation, royalty, taxes, ring-fencing, full liability insurance, interest rate, etc., then the only question left for him to answer is, would he rather recuse himself from that portfolio or rather be removed legally against his will?

Yours faithfully, 

R. David

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• ExxonMobil, Guyana, leaders, R. David., Ukraine

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