There is a popular saying that the law is made for man, not man for the law. This is explained simply by understanding the reasons for law in any society. The law is intended to be regulatory. It regulates human behavior and helps to prevent anarchy. There is the view that laws should exist to serve human needs, promote justice, and protect society, rather than being an end in themselves. This principle suggests that laws should be flexible and adaptable to serve humanity. If a law becomes a burden or is not serving its purpose, it should be changed or amended.”
In Guyana the government is being accused of operating outside the law. The novel Animal Farm, by George Orwell, the pen name for Eric Arthur Blair, an English novelist, highlights how the law can be changed to reflect the objects of those who seek to use it for their benefit. In the novel there was the law that stated ‘No animal should sleep in beds.” When the ordinary man found that the rulers were sleeping in beds, and protested, the rulers simply amended the law to read, “No animal should sleep in beds with sheets.”
Perhaps the most appropriate law in Animal Farm stated that “all animals are equal”. That was modified to state that “all animals are equal but some are more equal than others.” And so we come to Guyana. Some of the rulers must have read Animal Farm because they rush to change the law whenever there were challenges to certain operations.
A judge, Justice Sandil Kissoon, ruled on the need for an unlimited parent company guarantee in the event of an oil spill. Although this was in the interest of Guyana the government rushed to appeal the decision. It was siding with the oil company against the interest of the people of Guyana. It wanted to change the law that protected the country from the oil giant.
The government had an interest in protecting the oil giant. This was classic Animal Farm. While Justice Kissoon’s ruling stands until overturned, it has been stayed pending the outcome of the appeal. The government is arguing that the decision against ExxonMobil would cause massive financial losses and “grave economic and other impacts on the public interest and national development”.
This cannot be understood unless ExxonMobil has threatened to withhold some of the money currently being given to Guyana.The harsh reality is that whatever money Guyana is getting is a pittance when compared to what ExxonMobil is getting from the oil extraction.
The grave economic and other impacts on the public interest and national development as claimed by the government certainly do not apply. Despite the oil wealth the majority of Guyanese remain poor. Between 43 percent and 50 per cent of the population live in poverty. Infrastructure projects are being undertaken. There are numerous roads. Schools have been promised. In fact, work actually began on some of the schools. Large sums of money were voted for their completion.
However, schools like the Bamia Primary School remain unfinished some two years after the deadline. Threats have done nothing to enhance the completion. Promises to enforce the completion of these projects have gone nowhere. The situation remains the same.
The gas to energy project is another. More than US$1 billion has been expended; deadlines have been exceeded but the project remains unfinished. Nothing is being said about this project. Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo has openly said that he will answer no further question on this project.
At the same time Guyana is paying for the gas that is being pumped off the ocean bed and delivered somewhere on the Guyana cost. As one writer noted recently, the gas is leaking away. Guyana is paying for what it does not need or cannot use at this time.
Forget about the billion-dollar well that was to have been constructed by Tepui Incorporated. That has been stalled. The National Procurement and Tender Administration Board found that there were flaws in the award of the tender but that it could do nothing.
Money is being wasted while people are starving. As in the case of Animal Farm, their starvation is for their own good.
When the government sought to extradite Barry Dataram it found that it could not, that there was a clause in the law that prevented the extradition. As is the case in Animal Farm, the government simply modified the law. The Mohameds will not have that loophole in the law.
In the run up to the September 2025 elections the government promised a cash grant before Christmas. As has become common in Guyana, people seem to be content to sit back and stretch out their hands for donations. No one stopped to think that the government would have had to go to Parliament for a budgetary allocation to effect the cash grant payment.
The elections are over. Every day the very people are now asking about the promised cash grant. The tiny contracts that they got ahead of the elections have disappeared. No more easy money.
Last week, Stabroek News reported that President Irfaan Ali dodged questions on the cash grant. Certain opposition leaders have also made this an issue. One can only assume that they hope to score political points if they can force the government to pay out the money.
There is no talk of collective bargaining. The government has bent the will of the public servants to the point where they are now accustomed to a small increase at the end of the year. The joint services expect the one-month bonus and life goes on.
Leader of A Partnership for National Unity, Aubrey Norton, has said that the government has reduced the populace to abject poverty so that they will see any crumb as being better than nothing. The merchants are biting their nails. They will not see the crowd of shoppers this Christmas. There is just no money.
