By GHK Lall- In Homer’s Odyssey, many lessons are learned from the heroine, Penelope, who is swarmed by an army of calculating suitors. The wife of Ulysses (Odysseus) prized being true to the trust vested in her, so she developed strategies to manage those who came to woo her, win her favor. She hedged and bought time. She played them one against the other. She dug deep in her bag of wisdom, and worked out new ways to gain space and what was best for her interests.
Fact or fable, the lessons are undeniable, timeless. For Guyana with vats of oil that the world desires with a passion, the practices of the people in charge of the national house, the PPP Govt, operate at a different level; one that couldn’t be much lower than that of Penelope. When the wooers come from all corners, either invited or of their own volition, they are not held at bay. They are used by a crass government to trick the children of Guyana, the owners and preferred shareholders in the national oil enterprise.
Take the BBC. Its World Questions programme should be about what enlightens, tells people around the globe, of the bona fides of Guyana’s oil, the foundations on which it is built, and how much such management is good for the Guyanese people. All of them. My expectation of a brand such as the BBC is that its objectives are in keeping with the best standards of the Fourth Estate. It has a duty to relay to the world all the elements of Guyana’s oil story. Not any government’s line of news that gives the impression of solidness, but is shallow. The BBC should be mindful of its history, and be careful not to be a party to any setup where a stacked deck is clearly present. Example: there’s the composition of its World Questions panel for Guyana, the voices to be heard.
No news agency that takes pride in its record, its name, should ever consent to letting agents of the government (Guyanese or British) decide who is good to have, so that there is a preset outcome. And who should be kept out of the Guyana oil conversation, because they will call oil as it is. In all of its obscene contractual components (what would make a Duke of Marlboro or Churchill flare angrily). In what shackles a people and their institutions, from parliament to judiciary. The latter has reached the dismal state, where some decisions can be guaranteed.
And, in how the imprudent and bigoted stewardship of the PPP Government has boosted the prosperity of the few, and punished the many yet to taste the real benefits of their oil. Those are the components to be sifted through, given a good shaking, then dissected again. If the BBC comes to Guyana to get to the bottom of those oil areas, then it would live up to its name. A name that was once revered by people like me. The BBC was more than the immaculacy of the late John Arlott, more than the world of sport. The BBC was of the world news, and now the World of Questions.
Now I say this before everyone. If the BBC is coming to Guyana to go through the motions of pretending at penetrating, independent journalism, my position is clear-cut: spare Guyanese the masquerade. Better that the BBC reschedules its travel plans, starts over, and works diligently at getting what brightens its presentation to the world. Because what is unearthed captures and carries away the essences of Guyana’s oil since it was first discovered 120 miles offshore almost 10 years ago. I would welcome the BBC. Market its presence. Applaud the people shortlisted for its panel.
Given recent unsettling developments, the BBC could be a proxy for pulling the wool over Guyanese eyes, insulting their intelligence. The government of Dr. Ashni Singh doesn’t have to chortle and celebrate. The BBC does that: sell the deceptions about how well the oil is managed, and how much all Guyanese are better off because of government’s prudence. A feather in the cap of a government forever plotting deceptive angles. Another foot on the bottoms of Guyanese, then the coup de grace. A knee on their necks. I think that the BBC has enough self-respect left to distance from dealing with a tainted deck; race and gender coding notwithstanding
