Historical speculation that Guyana has oil and gas in commercial quantities was confirmed in 2015 immediately after the coalition government took office. Noise from the PPP opposition and their cohorts that the contract the coalition government signed with Exxon was bad and the citizens were undersold is proving to be just that. Noise.
We bear witness today the noise was a strategy to mask the intense monetary plans they were cooking up and devious efforts at reclaiming the government to capture the oil and gas industry and its businesses for pure greed not the national good. To date there is no national programme to determine how the monies accrued from these resources will be spent and how every citizen can benefit.
The PPP has succeeded in diverting citizens’ attention from reaping benefits in an equitable manner by making people feel we are being robbed by foreigners, as they are robbing us and enriching themselves hands over fist.
Immediately after getting into office, they sought to control every economic and land space.
They went after Colvin London, head of NICIL, and Trevor Benn, head of Guyana Lands and Survey Commission, like bloodhounds. They paraded them before the courts not that they did anything illegal, but to have us fighting among ourselves whether they conducted criminal actions whilst in office, to divert attention from their ploy to replace them with persons likely to do their bidding in reclaiming and distributing lands.
In two short years the PPP leaders and cohorst have amassed more than enough to set them for generations to come. If we don’t stop them now, they will become sole owners of Guyana’s wealth.
The PPP poses a clear and present threat to Guyana’s development, not Exxon. They are the ones controlling the levers of power in the Executive and Legislature and can determine how Exxon treats us. The truth is Bharrat Jagdeo, Irfaan Ali and their cohorts do not care about Exxon or Guyana’s development once they are allowed to run wild and behave like buccaneers.
It is time for action. We cannot wait.
The coalition government had the opportunity to put systems in place to ensure equitable development of the oil and gas resources. Whereas there remains concern they could have done things differently, the nation has been dealt the hands of the rapacious PPP leaders and we must confront this greedy beast before we end up as second- and third-class citizens in a land we all built, at different times and to different degrees.
Civil society and the Opposition must realise the reckless emptying of the Treasury, awarding of state contracts and mistreatment of citizens will continue without regard for law, fairness and equity unless the Jagdeo/Ali regime is held to account.
With Guyana’s newfound wealth these rapacious leaders are attempting to buy silence around the region and in the international community. They are doing just that with the high-priced international PR firms taxpayers are funding, and with regional leaders who care only about their national interest, not the founding principles of CARICOM.
The nation is getting cocked.
Let me be very clear; I am not against the revisiting of oil contracts because as a trade unionist I know issues of this nature are possible. I am strongly against the lies this nation is being fed by the PPP and believe it is way past time they be confronted.
The regime’s intent to have total political and economic control and a compliant population, at all costs. The strategy they have employed in furtherance of this is pitting races against each other.
In the indigenous communities as they throw trinkets at the leadership they get away with deciding what they will give to the community. In the East Indian community, the regime will deliver whatever the community calls for with a view of minimising dissatisfaction and creating the pretense disgruntlement is only among a few.
When it comes to the African community, the regime is conscious the elected leadership will not grovel and it is for this reason they are going into the communities and identifying who must be the people’s leaders. This was recently seen at Mocha, where President Ali sought to humiliate the elected NDC chairman and gave leadership recognition to an individual he had chosen.
When the Jagdeo/Ali regime plays to the gallery of division they succeed in masking their greed and carving up Guyana for a few. A united people is their greatest enemy.
We cannot wait on elections to stop the runaway train or be part of a process to equitably share in the national patrimony. We must begin, in our respective community, to identify our needs and demand what’s justly ours. Where the regime continues to ignore the Opposition that is the political representative for half the society, the national leaders must meet with the various stakeholders and together develop a programme, supported by a strategy, then lay it before the nation and fight for its implementation.
It is time for action. We cannot wait.
