Learning from Americans

Aug 24, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – Several columns are in the pipeline that speak to the plight of those held to ransom by circumstances, over the recent centuries.  The focus is on how some reacted and went after their destiny with determination and grit, courage and resourcefulness.  Another would be of those who allowed themselves to be bent by the winds, how they ended up.  The objective is to furnish my fellow Guyanese with lessons, reminders, and inspirations on what history has taught us, what is left in our hands, and what wisdoms must come.

I begin with the British in Colonial America.  I take the liberty of speaking directly to my fellow American, Mr. Alistair Routledge, plus the broadest expanse of Guyana.  To Mr. Routledge, I wish for a profitable 2024 for Exxon, and extend good graces to him personally.

As an American, I am confident that the Exxon Country Head in Guyana is very familiar with the visions, attitudes, and actions that inspired his forbears to resist the British, and in so doing, earn by force of character, freedom from the stranglehold of British tyranny.  It is interesting that Englishmen from the Mayflower down to the 1760s had close relationships with the British, through shared heritage, and reciprocal activities.  The cavaliers of Virginia are one example.  Yet they chafed, and for something as small as taxes.

Boston attorney, James Otis, said it best in 1761, “taxation without representation is tyranny.”  Now if that was not the opening peal of a freedom bell, then I don’t know what is.  The long slumbering Navigation Act was shaken to life, and enforced by King George III, through his Prime Minister William Pitt.  All that was sought by England was to make the colonists pay a little duty to cover some expenses, such as defense.  The uproar was heard all the way across the Atlantic, and rocked the rafters in dear olde England.  King George went through seven Prime Ministers to get the upstart (rebellious) colonists to shell out a few shillings.  William Pitt failed, right-winger Lord Bute stumbled, Lord Grenville got nowhere, Lord Frederick North struggled, the marquess of Rockingham threw in the towel early, then William Pitt (again), who got seriously ill, and Charles Townsend.  Seven prime ministers and a King were brought to a grinding halt by the colonists.  Not one damn pence, Majesty.  I am certain that Mr. Routledge of America and Exxon can see where I am going.

The Navigation Act, Acts of Trade, Sugar Act of 1764, Stamp Act, Tea Act, Mutiny Act, and Quartering Act were all unsheathed and brandished at the colonists, and still they refused to part with a few farthings, for what was not such an expensive proposition.  In fact, each new legal apparatus by the mother country to wrest some cash out of the colonists only stoked the fires of resentment further. In Virginia, Patrick Henry tabled the seven Virginia Resolves of 1765.  One of those Resolves spoke of legal autonomy, which was code for Independence, then still years away.  When some jumped on that old warhorse name treason, Patrick Henry openly mocked them: “If this be treason, make the most of it.”  Mr. Routledge should recall that government hustlers tried something similar here with me last year to inhibit from going after Exxon and its local collaborators.  My response then, and my response now, is identical to that of Patrick Henry.

What’s the point of all this?  It is that Guyana’s leaders should be inspired by Colonial America Patriots.  They resisted pound, shilling, and pence, mere pittances, as well as king and mother country.  Ours is a trillion American dollars of sacred birthright, and our luminaries are ghostly shadows of indecision, derision, and submission.  Colonial Americans didn’t want to negotiate, they craved freedom.  Our guys don’t want to compel Exxon to renegotiate, and they have fallen in love with self-enslavement.  Guyana’s political leaders may see themselves as lesser people who survive by sucking up.  Not this one, brothers.

Separately, if only the people at Exxon take a leaf out of their own history books, and make the kind of adjustment that the circumstances here demand.  Exxon Guyana (or however branded nowadays) has an opportunity to be Public Partner Number 1 with the Guyanese people. A partner that is authentic through and through, with fairness foremost.  Shell out some cash (percentages, share, taxes).  To date, legal compact and all, Exxon has been the epitome of a rapacious, ruthless corporate predator.  I still think that can be changed.  The very last thing that anyone (I) would wish is for Exxon to mutate into Public Enemy Number 1, which many Guyanese already believe deep down is where it has reached.

No government chieftains, no media thuggees, no slippery Guyanese defender will be able to remove the stain and stench of Public Enemy Number 1 from Exxon.  I appreciate that Mr. Routledge has Guyana’s leading people curtsying, pirouetting, and trash talking; they are not of the stuff of Nathan Hale, Paul Revere, or Nathan Bedford Forest.  I would have been so proud.  Instead, we have tricksters and backstabbers pretending at enlightenment.  Meanwhile, the fight continues. For there are others seething with fury at Exxon’s yoke (contract) which dilutes Guyanese potential, prosperity.  Exxon must learn from King George’s hardheadedness.  Guyanese have rights, just like the colonists, and there will be a reckoning for them.  Better that all be on the same side.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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• American, circumstances, courage, Mr. Alistair Routledge, speak

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