H@RD TRUTHS BY GHK LALL – Conflict of interest, what conflict?

Feb 03, 2024 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – Thanks to the mysterious visions of the PPP Government, and the crafted machinations of Oil and Gas strongman, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, there is always a new thrill.  Or the extension of an existing one, in Guyana that has to do with the national endowment.  The return of the Three Musketeers to the Environmental Assessment Board (EAB) is one such thrill.  Given the government’s complete trust in this trio of noble Guyanese, it might be more proper to label them The Magnificent Three.  That they are, Dr. Mahender Sharma, Dr. Gavin Cummings, and Permanent Secretary, Joslyn McKenzie.  Revealingly, PS McKenzie is not the head of the Ministry of Local Government, nor of the Public Service.  He is jefe of the Ministry of Natural Resources, and all that goes under its roof, all it represents.

Regrettably, the PPP Government seems stuck on them, and it is more than Lionel Richie singing his heart out.  These three remarkable representatives of Guyanese citizenry must be doing something good, delivering on every occasion.  Trouble comes.  It is the relentless civil society activist, and formidable social instrumentality, Ms. Danuta Radzik.  She has a problem, more than one, and she is not sitting on her hands, or staying quiet.  If VP Jagdeo had his way, all Guyanese should be quiet: seen and not heard.  Some should not even be seen in the twisted version that is Guyana’s democracy.  But Ms. Radzik is not who deters easily.  Off to the tribunals and tribunes of Guyana.

Conflict of interest, I read.  Well, well, I must admit that one caught me on the wrong foot, definitely by surprise.  No way that that can be of the two men I know in this erstwhile EAB triumvirate in which the PPP Government (meaning Jagdeo) deposits so much faith.  They have always dealt straight with me in the times shared.  Then again, people change; plus the Siamese twin that is oil and gas has many features that just cannot be resisted.  Ms. Radzik did not go into any juicy detail, but she certainly is objecting to their presence on the EAB, and their failure to stand up for what is right by the Guyanese people with those needed environmental impacts assessments for the two plants over by Wales.

I had my concerns with those decisions of the EAB trinity extracted from the ranks of principled people in Guyana.  How could they?  For these men are brighter and sturdier than this.  What changed, and to such an alarming degree?  All three of these illustrious ones are sure to appreciate the revelations and protections that credible environmental impacts assessments offer the Guyanese people.  I ask myself whether they have become so skilled at reading the terrain that they think less of the people, when it is the interest of political princes that is involved.  I take the hard road on this issue about their deliberations and their decisions in more than one instance.  If they were part of the Wales community and its extended edges, would they have concluded as they did?  To cut an even finer point on their duty at the EAB, is it that their best tool, their only resource, is a rubberstamp?  A cheap one that leaves stains and blotches on their fingers, which when they touch their faces leave them looking less than the public servants that I once knew?

There are some issues that are complex.  On the other hand, there are those that are the essence of commonsense.  I take the bull by the horns, and submit that environmental impact assessments qualify for the latter.  They must be done, given all that is at risk, all that could be.  Why take the chance and do without one?  Why give the shortest thrift to the welfare of citizens, while going through what looks like the motion of sitting in serious and genuine review?  Why do the opposite, which is what accrues to the benefit of whatever goes on in the Vice President’s skull, but almost always what leaves Guyanese fetching a big bag that burdens them heavily, threatens to break their backs?

I recall that these guys-CEO Mahender Sharma and PS Joslyn McKenzie – are big picture guys, and proponents of the long view.  I commend them unhesitatingly and generously.  But I also assert and insist that any big picture must contain the biggest brushstroke of all.  For the enlightenment of all three of these luminous brothers, that would be what is well for the Guyanese people.  Their safety and security.  Their peace of mind.  Their inalienable right to happiness in their little square of Guyana, wherever such is: Wales or Houston, or farther up the East Bank Demerara.  The American in me had to throw in ‘inalienable.’  Let us not make a mockery of what is due Guyanese.  Take it from me, when the Exxon(s) and Schlumberger(s) and Lindsacaya(s) have had their fun and are done, there would be the Guyanese wretches left to deal with the wake of their passage.

This is what Ms. Danuta Radzik has made part of her thankless work.  The men on the EAB have an opportunity to be the Three Musketeers.  Please do not let matters deteriorate, my brothers, to the slapstick of The Three Stooges.

(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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• Dr. Gavin Cummings, Dr. Mahender Sharma, Environmental Assessment Board (EAB), GHK Lall, H@rd Truths

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