UG Green Institute Prelim. Report Pt. 1

Jun 10, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall

(Kaieteur News) – The University of Guyana Green Institute (UGGI) did its 60^th Independence Survey.  Titled: Guyana at 60: Trust, Oil, and the Society Being Built.  The Preliminary Report is out. It’s a start. Guyanese get to hear from academics with their models and variables, their interpretations and what those surveyed thought, said, and felt about where Guyana is.

Disclosure: I know some of those involved in this timely, needed survey. First Takes: It’s an enlightening first effort, provides a launchpad for broader surveys/studies.  Commendations. The sample is noticeably small (134); the coverage area heavily populated, but limited (Region Four alone). Though political gaps have narrowed, based on the September 2025 results, the next survey must be more geographically representative, age-distributed, and reflective of wider educational dispersion. This, I think, allows the greatest cross-sectional participation and deeper insights into the front-burner issues of trust, oil, and the quality of the Guyanese society being built.  Further, the Preliminary Report is well-done, but the going is heavy. Not for the layman.  With those points shared, I move forward into this first part of a planned three-part effort on what the survey said.  Trust and oil take centerstage in this Part I.

The survey said: trust is in scarce supply. Fury boils when civil society Guyanese, ordinary Guyanese, say so.  It’s not welcomed news for a society that should be on top of the world and on the doorstep of great possibilities. A glance, or a long pause, at the trust component of the UGGI survey confirm the undesirable and unsavory: 1) trust is in poor shape in all areas; 2) trust in two specific areas can be said to be as good as dead, it is at such a low ebb. Those two areas are national government and foreign oil companies, which means all three, but mainly one, for all intents and conclusions (and all the contempt that can be mustered).

When Guyanese can’t get to the midpoint score relative to trusting even members of their own race, it is a terrible place for Guyana to be. If not for one’s own kind, then I shudder to think of how much (how low, if any) trust there can be for Guyanese of other ethnicities. I hear about unity and harmony on special occasions, including during Independence celebrations. There is rhetoric, and there is reality. Speaking for myself, the wish is that when I share my belief that trust is close to non-existent in Guyana, the hope is that that’s way off target, that I have it all wrong. The narrow and compressed UGGI survey confirmed the worst fears.  Since Guyana is this way, what is the likelihood of national unity?

Worse still, the two most watched, most talked about, most disputed entities in Guyana have to be the national government and foreign oil companies.  I single out neither party nor partner for specific identification, keep matters broad and general. On the trust scale, the two lowest scorers are national government and oil companies. They are rock bottom.  A trust score of 3.72 for national government and 2.50 for oil companies out of 10 is almost like a horror score of zero out of 10. There is no joy in either score, for then I would be wounding myself, family, community, and country. If the national government does so poorly relative to trust, where does that leave its leaders, ministers, other helpers? And, when the oil companies are distrusted so terribly, what is being built?  Whatever is being built, what is it build on? Slickness? Deviousness?  Unscrupulousness?  Taking advantage of Guyanese good faith and goodwill?

Even with the UGGI prelim report’s limitations, even if the numbers are off, I do not think that they are representative of a Guyana that is imaginary. This is the real Guyana.  Speeches and gifts and good cheer all have some value.  But Guyanese are not ostriches.  They recognise that they have been conned by their own and by their foreign partners.  Guyanese discern that they are being used; that their wealth is weaponized against their interests. Shades of the earlier question: if the current national government is almost totally distrusted, and after all of its sales pitches, then what about others wishing to be the next national government? This is alarming in the present and frightening for the future.

Last, after all of the insistent exclamations about ‘partnership with the Guyanese people’ and ‘for the benefit of Guyanese’, the 134 Guyanese surveyed gave the foreign oil companies the worst trust score of all (2.50 out of 10).  A finger in the eye, and a kick in the groin. It should be a jarring wakeup call (a bucket of ice water) for both national government and foreign oil companies. It’s now obvious that all the sweet talk (propaganda) has failed. Trust is a big, bad, bust. Good job UGGI!  Move forward with a bigger survey, and let’s hear from more Guyanese across Guyana. Perhaps, other Guyanese see, think, and feel differently.

(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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• GHK Lall, oil, University of Guyana Green Institute

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