By GHK Lall- Guyanese hunger for a leader of substance, a bona fide standard bearer. They are starving. This will continue for a long time with this oil patrimony that landed in their lap. What should have introduced national celebration, in anticipation of what is to come, has dissipated into that same familiar feeling. Disappointment. Dismay that comes from disillusionment. When the expectation of citizens is for their political leaders to put them first, winter arrived in Guyana and froze their leaders in their tracks. Like Frosty the Snowman, from children to adults watch them stand as monuments to inaction for the cause of citizens, cold to their pleadings to do something for them, get something better for them. There is a problem.
The problem for Guyanese politicians-from leading ones to supporting ones-is a serious one. It is existential. They come out swinging for Guyanese and they fall victim to that oil disease: unworthy leaders. Uncooperative, therefore untrusted; hence, disposable. Such political presences in any theater of oil operations are not malleable, thus they are replaceable. Like sanitary napkins. The choice is straight and sharp: get with Exxon’s (and America’s) program or get out of the way. There is a special remedy for nationalist politicians who are so stubborn as not to yield nor hear. Who doesn’t have the keenness to get out of the way find themselves being gotten rid of, unceremoniously.
The PPP Government and its luminaries know this all too well. The PNC and AFC and their brother warriors are just as good in the knowledge department about how the world of oil and US multinationals operate. The choice stares all of them right in the eye and it’s a fierce glare: manage the politics of oil or manage the political business that surrounds the discovery of oil. What will it be, and an answer is demanded now?
Look at all three of Guyana’s political parties: those that were once proud of being local behemoths are now content to be dwarfs. Oil dwarfs running around to do the bidding of Woods, Routledge, and Blinken. Guyanese may see the Yankees as partners; the sensible in this country would see them for what they are. Executioners. Of superpower and corporate oil vision and will. Executioners also of the hopes and aspirations of a people now racing towards extinction. Look at parties and leaders. Who is standing against Exxon? Who is for Guyana?
One leader is the epitome of a national tragedy – a walking, talking, breathing effigy. If being a buffoon is what is called for, then that is what must be done. Done, it has been. Another leader that compiled a reputation as a bulldozer is now pleased with himself to be a dainty butterfly before the interests of the new colonizers. If being a cheap hustler and prevaricator are what is required to keep place, then that is guaranteed. There was a time, a long interval of decades, when capitalism was the worst of curses in Guyana.
Nowadays, free enterprise (capitalism got rechristened) is what is embraced. Before, the friends cherished were Castro and Chou-en-Lai; these days they are Alistair and Antony and Joseph, as doddering as he is. Is that a political leadership and group reversal, turnaround, and somersault or what? On the other side of the local aisle, and in not-so-subtle imitation of adversaries, there is walking on eggshells, speaking in whispers, and damn if any offense is going to be caused. If the Guyanese people have to be offended-hopes dashed, dreams smashed-then that’s a ready price to be paid for staying on the right side of the oil people.
It is called stooping to conquer, and if that means walking on the backs of Guyanese, then so be it. The sick summary is encased in one sentence: political ambitions defeat the visions that could mean better for Guyanese. All three groups, PPP, PNC and AFC, manage politics rather than manage the business of oil to their best that Guyanese have a fighting chance to extract the best from their oil wealth. This infernal blessing is already a curse. Twist it or turn it, at the present rate, the oil is a curse. Check who gets the hog. Study who scraps and scrambles to collect the hoofs.
On top of all this is the Duke of Earl. Swaggering. Striding. Selling. All he needs is a Black Top hat, some spats and tails, and the proper walking stick. A golden cane is more genteel than a whip. In case there are Guyanese who want to know, the Duke of Earl is Alistair Routledge. This is the story from the slave ships to the Guyana ship of state. Who wants to challenge? From the sugar plantation of Lynchburg, Virginia to the oil plantation of Guyana.
The lynching of colored peoples continues, and with the cooperation of their own. History does more than repeat itself. So does slavery. Both extend themselves under new disguises. One is sanctity of contract. Another is that Guyanese have it good: the richest people globally. Somebody has got to care for the little brown brothers, as was said by President William Howard Taft and Vice President George Bush’s ‘little brown ones.’ To the brown ones of the Philippines and Mexico could be added the Guyanese of a similar color, plus the black and ebony ones.
The anguish of a people, the insults on a country, and the best their leaders can do is make themselves pretty and ready, as though they are part of some oil harem. Each one of them is about jostling the other for a better angle to attract the attention of the master, the white man, so that they are favored. This is the clever managing of politics, of political ambitions. What should be the burning priority of managing business prospects, for the fair rewards that are due tumble to meagerness and the miseries that they bring. It an unspoken strain of the oil curse. Generations of Guyanese brace for the bitter consequences.