Mishandling of our resources accompanied by dark ominous cloud of corruption, arrogance

Dear Editor,

Monday June 10, 2024 saw two news items of significance to every Guyanese and I am of the view that their contents should be shared by one and all.

I refer to the Monday’s edition of the Glenn Lall’s show on Kaieteur Radio and the erudite Editorial of Stabroek News of the same day. The revelations contained are extremely worrisome because this unnecessary mishandling of our non-renewable natural resources  is worrisome, since experience elsewhere, if not corrected post haste, will be a burden on this and succeeding generations.

This letter will not go into detail save to observe that this mishandling of our bountiful oil, gas, gold, timber, manganese and other natural resources, is also accompanied by a dark ominous cloud of corruption, arrogance, and a regime that seems anathema to consultation as required by law, and equally egregious, evidence of a disdain for the judiciary, and an unbelievable disrespect for the other pillar of a viable democracy, that of  collective bargaining.  All of the above is worsened by the manipulation of the higher echelons of the public service – A public service we inherited from the Westminster type governance model, which properly requires its senior public servants, in particular Permanent Secretaries, the de facto Heads of respective Ministries, to be the  chief decision-makers   with responsibility for executing, no pun intended,  governmental decisions and policies, and who should be aloof from party politics.

To have had a Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, with a clear affiliation to the Party in Office, suggests an intention to manage and manipulate the important sector of national security and an attempt to influence internal security matters as though it is the fiefdom of the President and the General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party.  Her recent transfer to the Ministry of Labour must be viewed in the context of recent revelations.

Those revelations, contained in the United States Department of the Treasury statement, where they imposed sanctions on businessmen Nazar Mohamed and son, Azruddin Mohamed over the alleged massive smuggling of gold and Permanent Secretary Mae Toussaint Thomas over alleged corruption, were  damning. Who knows this may just be the tip of the iceberg. Recall our friend Roger Khan’s full page announcement when he claimed that he had the capacity to help the PPP Government. Shortly after, dead bodies turned up in several places. Further comments are unnecessary.  Is there a nexus between these events?

With respect to the oil, gas and gold sector we remain appalled and disgusted  by these mullings about  the sanctity of contracts and the sand-dancing when offers had been made both by former Minister Trotman and an experienced negotiator from Trinidad & Tobago to re-negotiate the ridiculous contract with which we are still burdened.  So our illustrious leaders seem satisfied with small slices from a huge cake, perhaps because  the  icing on the cake is being eaten by a small group creating an apartheid environment in our country. An apartheid that has little or nothing to do with race, but with the creation of an ugly unacceptable class structure, widening the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’.

With this knowledge and understanding, it should give us as a people – old, middle-aged, and young,  the impetus to agitate so that our freedoms and our independence translate into true liberation. A liberation which frees us from the tentacles of foreign domination and exploitation, by entities harvesting our natural resources  for their own benefit. The trouble is that we have in place a Government that sees nothing wrong with a relationship that disallows the people of Guyana from obtaining optimum benefit from our non-renewable natural resources.

We, as Guyanese, must demand that those who have come to extract our  oil  resources return to the negotiation table, must revisit the contracts signed, and must offer guarantees with respect to the possibility of an oil spill. This question of the sanctity of contracts is nonsensical in view of the fact that in hindsight this contract clearly highlights the advantage that was taken by an international oil conglomerate on a small country with little understanding of the intricacies of oil negotiation, a contract that allowed  the oil company in question to receive the bulk of the profits while we,  the owners, were relegated to pittances.

On Monday we were reminded of Stabroek News Editorial – “Rapacious ExxonMobil and the Gov’t” This situation is worsened when you have a Government who talks about democracy but hiding from citizens the key aspects of the report generated by auditors in the oil and gas sector. So why is this haemorrhage taking place and billions being squandered?

They are unwilling to respond to the plight of teachers represented by the Guyana Teachers Union (GTU) in spite of the availability of massive sums more than ever in our country. Our teachers are the worst paid in the region, where we are now by far the richest country per capita in this hemisphere. Unbelievable, but true.

Change designates one of the most conspicuous and pervasive features of life and human relations.  We must not be averse to change but in fact must embrace it as the only given in life. This contract personifies the absolute for adjustment.  We must demand the re-negotiation of this contract. Our silence must no longer be an option.

Yours truly,

Hamilton Green

Elder