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Flipping
Editorial
(Kaieteur News) – “So, tell me, tell me everything. Tell me, what was the cost of the exploration? How much the company spent on exploration, so that they could have gotten the market value of what asset they have, and who carried that cost?”
“Tell me everything…tell me”, that was President Irfaan Ali asking his own questions instead of answering questions related to foreign firms flipping huge mining assets. Should there not be more robust policies to prevent flipping? This passing from hand to hand for huge cash inflows, while Guyana gets nothing, and watches like an uninvolved, unconcerned bystander as its riches are bartered freely and profitably. In the context of gold, it is obvious that the government has set its course. Do not pressure foreign investors, do not enrage foreign governments. Nothing said, nothing written, nothing protested over or criticized can influence government and president to change their ways.
From his answer, a stranger to Guyana could mistake President Ali for a determined foreign investor. One for whom the highest priority is defending his company’s investment and interests. Listen to Guyana’s president again: “How much the company spent on exploration…? Why is Guyana’s President Ali so wrapped up in Canadian companies, or any other companies, and how much they spent on exploration? That is more for companies to sell as part of their negotiating strategy before a contract is signed. In other words, the company is planning to spend so much on exploration in Guyana’s goldfields, with expectations that profits will result from that investment of millions, time, and skills.
We at this paper recognize that companies, whatever their origins: American, Canadian, or Chinese, among others, should earn a profit, as a normal, rewarding outcome of their investment. We have a problem, though, when vast tracts of prime mineral lands are passed around, like a bowler with a cricket ball that is tossed from one hand to the next, before his run-up begins. Guyana’s gold lands are not a cricket ball, or hamburger patties, flipped from one position to another, while spectators follow the arc, and lick their lips in anticipation. Something is horribly wrong with that picture that consigns Guyana, the owner of those rich lands, to the sidelines, as though what is happening is none of its business. We think that this is why stronger policies are needed to combat this different form of exploitation occurring in the open, and without a care. Truth be told, we are surprised that, after the bitter and costly experience with oil and the ExxonMobil consortium, the PPPC Government that is now in charge would have been keen to avoid any repeating of what disadvantages this country and its citizens.
Yet, there was President Ali himself sounding more like a company lawyer than Guyana’s leader. If he was not defending flipping of gold lands, what was he doing? If he cannot come out against what clearly is against Guyanese interests, then how does he represent an independent leader of an independent country? Since he is so much for what benefits both G Mining ventures Corp and G2 Goldfields, then there is once again the same sickening conclusion resurfacing. It is where Guyana’s interests are sacrificed so that foreign companies can report to their shareholders in breathless terms how well they have made out here. Instead of fair and equitable partnerships, it is the ExxonMobil story repeated again. Oil or gold, the foreign companies reap riches similar to the old-time pirates. They were always on the hunt for rich gold harvests, while the places and people to which those harvests belonged remained in poverty.
The president spoke of Guyana operating under global market standards. ExxonMobil made similar arguments in defending its revolting 2016 oil contract that robs Guyana. We offer, for the president’s benefit, a well-known domestic example under which citizens operate. When government awards a house lot, recipients cannot flip that land within 10 years. Government has the foresight to apply that provision to small lots to build a home. However, when thousands of acres of gold land and millions of ounces of gold are involved, President Ali pushes global standards. A national leader, or a company propagandizer, that’s for citizens to decide.
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