Opposition tightening the screws

Apr 06, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton has hit the nail on the head. Regarding the ExxonMobil relationship, it is the PPP/C Government that has the power to bring about change for the better from the nation’s wealth. The Opposition is limited in how much it can do, but Mr. Norton’s group can pressure the government and its leaders to make the moves that compel ExxonMobil to respond positively, be more generous to Guyana. The Opposition Leader is right and his role is to intensify the pressure that he spoke about.

We understand that ExxonMobil is first about profit maximization, but Guyanese cannot be the losers. The more this American oil supergiant grabs for itself, the less there is for citizens. In truth, a growing number of Guyanese harbour doubts about this so-called oil partner of Guyana. When billions in expenses are treated like espionage secrets, it is the duty of the sitting government to share what it has with the public. Whatever the arrangement between PPP/C Government leaders and the leading men of ExxonMobil in Guyana, it is a less than wholesome one when secrets rule the day. Secrets blanketing the interest rate(s) paid to the company for the funds loaned to Guyana to finance oil projects. Secrets infesting over a hundred billion dollars in depreciation and amortization expenses, and about which Vice President Jagdeo prefers not to speak. He prefers offering the ridiculous solution that interested Guyanese (the media) should raise their questions with the company. When the government of a sovereign nation and its leaders take comfort in coiling themselves into snakes to defer dealing in the full truth, then the snakelike is what results.

The reality is that Guyanese are forced to operate in a realm of impenetrable darkness and left to play one guessing game after another. On smaller matters this may be ignored, but not on something as massive as oil, and about which there is nothing that even comes close. No government, no leader, should be a party to keeping need to know information from citizens. When secrets take precedence, then suspicions of conspiracies between the government and ExxonMobil deepen. When there is the limited and crafty information sharing emanating from the man in the forefront of the oil sector, Jagdeo, then it is time for the political Opposition to up the pressure and apply more heat constantly. It is revealing that when ExxonMobil must be backed against a wall and made to listen to reason (and economics), Jagdeo is at his weakest, sloppiest, slyest, and slipperiest. The same Jagdeo who can be such a forceful presence locally transforms into a split personality, when his obligations to the Guyanese people should come first. Before ExxonMobil, he revels in being the helpful and fearful figure that he cuts. Before Guyanese, he resists straight answers, is a loud bundle of secrets. He and President Ali claim to have no power, because they are handcuffed by the contract. They have the sledgehammer of new oil projects craved by ExxonMobil to feed its shareholders’ expectations but have effectively retired that powerful asset.

When the pressure must be applied to ExxonMobil, Ali and Jagdeo are pleased to pressure Guyanese. If it is not through tricky language, it is through policy and procedural tricks. And, as if all those are not enough to devastate the oil promise of Guyana, the PPPC Government ensures that it gets tricky people at key decision points, so that ExxonMobil is not delayed at all. Any neutral observation of President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo and their stewardship of this fabulous national oil gift would confirm that both are committed to dancing to any tune that ExxonMobil plays. All that Darren Woods and Alistair Routledge have to do is give them a hard stare and they rush to obey the bidding of their foreign oil masters.

No vibrant Opposition could afford to be voiceless or distant in such circumstances. An Opposition of merit must be resourceful enough to find ways to squeeze the government relentlessly. A determined Opposition demands and delivers. Guyana’s political Opposition has much ground to cover with oil, it has to be muscular, it must be regarded as fighting for Guyanese, and not itself.

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Aubrey Norton, Government, Opposition Leader, PPP/C, pressure

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