Jagdeo- the Vice President of excuses

Nov 13, 2024 Editorial, News

…Editorial

Kaieteur News- A review of his record confirms that Bharrat Jagdeo has rarely been about what offers genuine benefits to Guyanese. Be it as president, vice president, man of finance, or main oilman in Guyana, Jagdeo has almost certainly never been a part of anything that transfers any power from within his grasp and delivers it to Guyanese.

Whatever he has done, it has been about looking out for his interests, with the interests of citizens not featuring in his calculations. His commanding seat at Guyana’s oil table stands as the biggest public exhibit of what matters most to Jagdeo: himself and his hold on the reins of power.

A referendum on renegotiation of the ExxonMobil oil contract has the potential to remove some power from his hands and place it in the hands of Guyanese. It is the stuff of nightmares for a man well on his way to making himself a maximum leader in the mold of that unbroken line of North Koreans or the old East Germans. The mere idea of a referendum in its simplest, no-frills form, is enough to provoke heartburn and constipation in Jagdeo.

What would he do then, should those casting the ballot call for a renegotiation? Where would that leave him with his masters at ExxonMobil, with what he could be forced to do against his wishes and theirs also? Jagdeo has not gotten to where he is, and lasted as long as he has, by being weak, undecided, or lacking in nimbleness of feet. Instead, he finds refuge in what has served him well over the years: he comes up with excuses. Different conditions require different excuses, and there is none quite as good in Guyana as Jagdeo in coming up with excuses that he believes gives him the right camouflages. Though they are usually lame, and fools very few Guyanese, his excuses buy him time, give him room to slip away from tight corners.

So, according to the excuse prone and excuse energized Jagdeo, a referendum on renegotiation of the ExxonMobil contract (that he had blasted before) is the worst thing to be talking about at this time. Such a referendum would complicate the elections picture and plans. It is his feeble excuse not to have one, no matter how pathetic that sounds, how slippery that makes him look. His own record will show that Jagdeo has never been one to distance himself from what looks complicated, may actually be complicated.

The US$2B Wales gas-to-energy project is being fast-tracked by Guyana’s oil czar, with next to nothing known or shared about whether it makes economic sense or not. Once something is good for him, he makes all the complications vanish. The voluminous and complicated documents related to new oil projects that require a significant amount of time (many months) to review and decide, he reduces to nothing. When a matter is truly complicated, he waves it away as if it is as simple as a child’s alphabet and absorbed in no time. But when he wants to block what could benefit Guyanese, he distorts it into what is complicated and untimely, because it is unwanted by him.

Complicated is his excuse for a referendum on renegotiation. Sanctity of contract was the excuse that he and his government came up with, so as not to touch the paralyzing 2016 ExxonMobil oil contract. Spooking foreign investors was the excuse that he waved like a red flag before Guyanese, when he had to be against a court ruling having to do with a full parent guarantee from ExxonMobil in the event of an oil spill. When he needed to shake himself free of any responsibility, his repeated excuse to avoid accountability was to shift disputed issues to the technical people, or others. When Jagdeo wanted to please ExxonMobil by not ring-fencing the oil projects that he approved, or the new ones waiting in line, his excuse was that there will be more money for Guyanese later. When Jagdeo is set against doing anything that has some prospects for Guyana, he manufactures an excuse to help him evade doing anything today. Excuses keep him power, excuses have become the heart and soul of his leadership practices.

(Jagdeo- the Vice President of excuses )

Bharrat Jagdeo, Editorial, President, Vice President

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Jagdeo- the Vice President of excuses

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Jagdeo- the Vice President of excuses

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