Dear Editor,
Because of the problems and inequities in the oil and gas sector, many of us have blamed Vice President Jagdeo for the apparent failure to maximize the enormous wealth possible from our non-renewable natural resources, oil, gas, diamond, gold, manganese.
President Dr. Irfaan Muhamad Ali’s stout response to a statement attributed to former President Donald Ramotar is worrisome.
Donald Ramotar stated that he supports the idea of renegotiation or simply put a change of these lopsided, my words, not his, extant arrangements. President Ali wrongly contends that such a policy would scare investors away. Absolute nonsense.
Briefly I make the following comments:-
(a) With a population of point 8 million, with no natural disasters, we have already have enough investors harvesting and I deliberately did not use the word exploiting our natural resources
Even as we daily bring up oil, gas, gold diamonds, etc President Ali and his Government should put an end to the perceived corruption at many levels of the Administration. This requires a moral sense to identify right from wrong.
(b) If we had true patriots and statesmen making decisions with the billions of barrels and tons of gold, bauxite and manganese now being harvested, by now poverty everywhere in Guyana should have been completely eradicated. All that is required for the President is for him to be faithful to the essence of the constitution, our customs and our laws. That is to be obedient to the true meaning of inclusionary democracy and to end this charade of One Guyana, while ignoring the Leader of the Opposition and the authentic Trade Unions and representatives of workers in the public sector.
The President and his Advisors must know that if you speak to these powerful conglomerates on behalf of a single political group, you are unable to get the best deal for citizens of our country. But speak on behalf of all of the people, you will get much, much more. The voice of the People is the voice of God.
The mighty conglomerates in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe have taken advantage of Governments that only speak on behalf of half of the population.
(c) This talk about the sanctity of contracts is nonsensical and flies in the face of the real world. From Plato through the ages Change according to a Greek Philosopher, Milic Capek describes “Change as a word that designates one of the most conspicuous and most pervasive features of our sensory and introspective experience – only the related feature of plurality or diversity is equally so.”
At a personal level, we go before God and Man and with our Holy Books swear that for better or for worse, for richer for poorer, until death do us part, yet everywhere those contracts are broken with thousands of divorces.
In other words, when there are changes, we must be able to talk things through to benefit the majority of citizens.
President Ali must stop this nonsense about scaring away investors and the sanctity of contracts.
If our President wishes to be a true patriot, he would initiate meaningful discussions with the Parliamentary Opposition and come up with proposals to get much, much more from our bountiful resources.
I end with two observations, first, listening to President Ali you will get the impression that he believes that he is the font of all wisdom with the divine right of Kings. This is a dangerous attitude. Not new in human history. I state his sentence by a character in Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar “ Why, Man he doth bestride our narrow world. Like a Colossus, and we petty men . Walk under his huge legs and peep about to find ourselves dishonorable graves. Men at some time are masters of their fates. The fault dear Brutus is not in our stars but in ourselves that we are underlings.”
I conclude, let us unite to avoid a retool of slavery and a return to the harshness of immigrant labour on the plantations.
To the Government and People of Guyana united we stand, divided we fall.
Yours truly,
Hamilton Green
Elder
