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BY GHK Lall
Leaders in today’s PPPC Government can talk as much as they want thrill staunch supporters and blind believers to the hilt, but they are nothing but deceivers and frauds.
This is what emerges without question, is sharply obvious, in what will be the composition of Guyana’s Natural Resources Fund board. In view of how it is taking shape, and with commonsense consideration for the powers vested by law in the President’s hands, when the membership on the board is finally over, it would be not this nation’s Natural Resource Fund board, but a board that is nothing other than a PPPC Oil Fund board. No more, no less, as is now becoming visible and extremely clear.
When the three nominees under the control of the President are considered, those would be people in whom Government and ruling party leaders have absolute confidence that they would do as is dictated to them. They will not rattle any cage, manufacture any rogue wave. They will be men trusted to do as they are told, who have what it takes to be treacherous to this country’s interests, to overlook the national interest, and be about what pleases-only pleases-those who control government’s reins of power, oil, and the minds of a great deal of the people. The President’s three people, plus Mr. Barrow, would make four that are there at the behest of the government. And to this, the nominee of the Private Sector when that is over, would make five. That is all five out of the five board members would be PPPC baptized, christened, and godfathered. Godfathers are usually owed, cannot and will not be crossed.
I have heard from good people that Mr. Barrow is a good man, a solid citizen. I take those as received, given the sources of my knowledge. It is ironic that the hated Burnham still rises up every so often, and his fingerprints are smeared over Guyana’s proceedings, including the oil that eluded his grasp and time. As to what caliber of oil fund sentinel, Mr. Barrow will be, that is up in the air. But given that he has been called to perform this duty in this capacity, by the people who did the calling, my conclusion is that he will measure to the expectations of his sponsors.
For PPPC leaders do not make mistakes with men for matters of this magnitude. They surround themselves with a certain kind of men and women. Those who may, at one time or the other, have had some semblance, some speck, of truth and fairness, of patriotic pride, and the dignity and self-respect that come from those, just look at them now. They are like the lost sheep of Israel wandering and wondering what did become of them, where they are heading. Any Guyanese possessing any hesitation should do themselves a favor and examinefor themselves those around PPPC Government leaders and arrive at their own conclusions. As to honor and trustworthiness for the national good, not the party or president (the real one). Regarding the present and potential of the peoples-all of them-in this seething, sulking, and suspicious land.
When someone of the ilk of Dr. Vincent Adams is cast aside, I ask myself what sin, what treason, he has committed, which combines to degrade him into the equivalent of a Guyanese political leper. If his worst sin is that of being a political appointment and a political player, then so are all of us, bar none. When I study a Christopher Ram, and inquire as to what he doesn’t know of those highly fancied fields of finance and law, I am left scratching my head, as to what he lacks. Though I may have some difficulty with what he may lack, I have no such limitations with what he knows, how and what he can possibly be.
He would be that most unwanted of men: one who studies too much, learns too much, and writes too much. Those are cardinal felonies in this country. It is also ironic that our own lawmaking body, our parliament of legislators, is peopled with some who have been accused of molestation, suspected of human destruction, and others who have engaged in property devastations. Those can float to the top (like so much odious human excrement), but a Vincent Adams and Chris Ram are denied the light of day.
I remind my fellow Guyanese: democracy is built on differences. When all are expected to see no wrong and say no wrong, not even think of any palpable wrongs occurring, then we don’t have the marvels of a Critchlow, a Burnham, a Jagan, and all those other bedrock patriots on which this land started out and slipped and slid forward to where it is today. Instead, we have a President that embodies the essence of a ‘yes man’ a man content with mediocrity, one proud of being a national embarrassment, withwhat comes from his mind and his hand. I don’t think that there can be worse, and this is what this Natural Resource Fund board is shaping up to be in its final form. This is what characterizes governance today.
I am far from optimistic about the quality of representation that Guyanese would have in the workings of this board, the sum of its output, the implications for the future of oil prospects, the future of this society. For, as most Guyanese should know, wherever there is oil, there is insatiable greed, and there are the catastrophic negatives that follow when only some have, and the rest are consigned to the existence of ‘have nots’ of not counting, and of being of no consequence. For when all is said and done, it is now settled wisdom that 780,000 citizens (or whatever the number) boils down to the starkness of one body, one vote, one result in everything. This is the reality that must be faced that 50% plus one translates to the simplicity and unchallengeable authority of ONE, and nothing more.