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In one of my previous offerings, the call for a referendum on the Exxon contract was made. What better way to shut down this back-and-forth issue, once and for all. Last week, it resurfaced with a loud bang, as if part of the holiday fireworks. But when Demerara Waves asked the question, the strangest of answers resulted. A referendum with 14-20 parties expected to contest next year’s elections “will further complicate the entire process and this should be avoided.” Avoid a referendum, Bhar-rat Jagdeo will, as if his life depended on it. Truth be told, his political life does, and given what has occurred in that, there is no telling what develops in his post-political life. His own life could get very “complicated” considering its many tricky strands.
Complicated is what Mr. Jagdeo rests his objection to a referendum on renegotiation of Exxon’s nationally insulting oil contract. How does one question asked of Guyanese voters complicate the process to such a knotty degree? To renegotiate or not to renegotiate? That’s all. It seems that from Jagdeo’s perspective, GECOM is a whale trapped in a catfish that is really a banga-mary. It is potent, but it is limited. It has reach, but its brain is frozen. GECOM can do many things, but one thing is a no-no, just too complicated to be done. I look at this referendum issue, and ask how much more complicated can it get? Currently, the ballot paper has two elements. The first has to do with a selection for president. The second gives the potential voter a slate for the regions. How complicated is it, in the present context, to insert a single question pertaining to a referendum on renegotiation of the 2016 Exxon oil deal? In my view, this most burning of national issues, this existential (if I may) oil referendum question distils to less than one line, with two choices. Here it is.
‘Are you in favor of renegotiation of the 2016 Exxon oil contract?’ The two choices are: YES or NO. To make the referendum issue much simpler, more convenient, I would remove two other boxes/choices. They are “UNSURE” and “MAYBE.” How does a one line question of exactly a dozen words make the 2025 elections complicated, I beg to ask Mr. Jagdeo? What is there about such a question, the essence of simplicity and brevity itself able to “further complicate the entire process”, my good sir? I think Daktah Jagdeo just made the process “further complicated” because it feathers his nest. It must not tamper with where he stands. To allow a referendum to take place is to endanger his place on the oil throne, to interfere with the firmness of his seat of power itself. Exxon would not take too kindly to a referendum, when the probability of its perils are so high, and so obvious. It is why, being the smart as a whip chap that he is, Jagdeo added that innocent sounding phrase, therefore, “this (business of a referendum] should be avoided.” I would, too, if I were in his shoes. But I could never be, since my way is not as curly, nor as twisty, as Jagdeo’s. It is why he is always swaying in the wind, going from side to side, or backwards and then downwards. Imagine a question about a referendum on renegotiation could succeed in bringing out the survivor’s instincts in Guyana’s chief oil impresario. Something tells me that the survey would have been sent to him and his government.
Not known to leave loose ends when his own interests are threatened, Dr. Jagdeo went further. The presence of 14-20 political parties transforms the 2025 elections into a big snake with many heads. Daktah Jagdeo must think that all Guyanese are sick. Besides, the PPP, PNC and AFC, all other parties count for nothing, now that the 2020 crop turned out to be PPP (Jagdeo) plants, Guyanese don’t trust those who swore not to join with the PPP or PNC, until they did. Those so-called independent parties have done well, thanks to Jagdeo’s gifts. From parliament to boardrooms, they happily consuming Jagdeo’s incentives. On the other hand, a new political party that is all about oil (with clean governance, constitutional freedoms and so forth, featuring prominently), and credible Guyanese presences, could be a difference maker. I foresee a spoiler, if that party were to make oil and the thrust for renegotiation. The odds would favor that group becoming Mistah Jagdeo’s waking, wounding nightmare. For such a political group would be openly and fiercely calling for what causes fits in the PPP, PNC, and AFC. Renegotiation of the obscene Exxon deal. A deal that is a disease. A deal that the major political parties are mortally afraid to challenge. Their fear paralyzes them. Their ambitions emasculate them. Whatever understanding that the major political parties may have there is one nonnegotiable component. Any development, anything that is harmful to Exxon’s interests, is dead in the water. Jagdeo must block it. He just did. A referendum would ‘complicate the process.’ Jagdeo complicated it still some more. Thus, he dances craftily around a referendum.
