By GHK Lall- Say Guyana oil spill legislation, and I can see the white man chortling. There is Exxon’s Alistair Routledge leaning back, celebrating, and ordering another 16-inch steak of Angus to be flown in from Gibson’s or Smith & Wollensky. The Exxon hand, the white man, gets to rejoice the old-fashioned way: he watches the brown man, the black man, and the beige man brawl and verbally beat each other silly over the recently passed oil spill legislation. This is Guyana’s version of governance, the cockfight that is oil management. It is also Exxon’s idea of native sport. Whoever said that the days of imperial masters are over is a dum-dum.
Look and listen to the elected in Guyana’s rowdiest house. It was all about clause 17, clause 21, clause 23, and clause this and that, about responsible party, liability, calendar and clock and who haven’t done duty nor give Guyanese any sense of serenity. Going through the motions, or feeding naïve Guyanese the same toxic political potions, locals can choose.
Either way they are going to get extremely sick should there be an offshore bust-up. Oil President Routledge has his hotline to American Airlines or, in a real hurry, the US Embassy. Those Guyanese who expect to see his face again are duller than I am. The Exxon man has whipped Guyanese politicians into shape. They jive talk, lineup, get down. Yeah, or nay. See any Charandass? See any moneygrubber going against that spill bill?
Some citizens were calling for, expecting, a special selection committee to scrutinize the oil spill bill, go an extra step, give additional effort. Hope does spring eternal…. Some Guyanese don’t have a full handle on how the PPP operates. Or better sense of how much rope Routledge gives those putting on a fine performance of being for country and citizens. The performers going through their paces, lines, think so. When a set of men and women do not prize highly fighting for the best protection for their homes, then what can be said about them, other than the absolute worst?
One bright fellow said that if discovery of a harm from an oil spill occurs 10 years from the date of the spill’s eruption, only then the one-year clock starts ticking. On paper, it sounds impressive. The reality is who in Guyana is going to have that exceptional stamina to fight such a fight a decade or five years hence? Plus, where would the level of urgency, interest, drive, and surrounding strength be to make a real case for proper comp due to a legitimate claim? It is gut check time.
That oil spill law with the endless name is not intended to inspire or incentivize Guyanese to seek their rights in the event of something perilous happening. It is to dissuade them by diminishing their value. To lock them into the mentality that the money that the white man agreed to hand to them should things blowup offshore is good enough for the likes of black men and brown ones and those other bronze ones. Mr. Nandlall may think the law is comprehensive and protective, which only serves to emphasize how much the white man’s culture and visions have taken over his thinking.
The PPP Government put Prime Minister Phillips to be the parliamentary general with the bill, so that it becomes law. It is highly doubtful that, putting on his army uniform, Ret’d General Phillips would have been comforted with an operational document like that (the spill bill) to stand and fight a real battle with a real flesh-and-blood adversary. He would have mutinied. One by one, however, like ninepins the government side of the aisle lined up in Guyana’s parliament to cast their vote for the inevitable result. The bill is now law. Guyanese should rejoice.
Alistair Routledge spares them the effort; he dances his victory jig for them. His salary and bonus just went up, for getting the natives to stay on Exxon’s reservation, yield to its power. Ali, Jagdeo, and Nandlall (and Phillips) just got called up again to the winner’s enclosure. The length that some will go in their lust for power, their willingness to kowtow before the usurper, oppressor, and enslaver. If the Guyanese people-ordinary citizens-are the price that has to be sacrificed, then it is a cheap one, considering that they only have worth at voting time.
The oil contract was confirmation of Guyana’s uninterrupted relationship to economic slavery. The oil spill law is reaffirmation of the mental slavery about which Bob Marley wailed so poignantly. Brothers Ali, Jagdeo, Phillips, and Nandlall can celebrate that mental slavery on Guyana’s upcoming Independence Day. Alistair Routledge will be the head cheerleader. Mental slavery lives and thrives in Guyana. The oil spill law is the newest billboard.
