Azruddin, America, and the Ballot: Let the People Decide- Attorney Janki

By Attorney-at-law Melinda Janki- Her Excellency Nicole Theriot has said that the United States would have a difficulty if Azruddin Mohamed is elected to Parliament. Mr. Mohamed does not even need to be a member of the executive arm of government; he just needs to be a legislator and the USA is “concerned.” Like it or not, Mr. Mohammed has satisfied the conditions for running for public office in Guyana. Guyanese voters are entitled to vote for him if they wish. The people will decide freely, as is their right. It’s called democracy.

Even though democracy is better than the alternatives it sometimes delivers self-defeating results. The American version of democracy has elevated Donald Trump (forty felony convictions, a court finding of sexual abuse and six bankruptcies) to President of the United States. It must be rather humiliating for Her Excellency to have a felon and sexual predator as her ultimate boss.

Obviously, Her Excellency’s job is to promote the interests of the United States which includes ensuring that American companies can continue to enrich their shareholders through blatant extractivism. Meanwhile the Guyana government bleats about ‘investment’. Vice-President Jagdeo even claims that Chevron will look out for Guyana. No it won’t. Chevron will look out for its shareholders and since Chevron’s Chairman, Mike Wirth, is a seriously intelligent man who just walloped Exxon, the Guyana government should exit Lala-land and start acting in the national interest.

In December 2018, when he was Leader of the Opposition, VP Jagdeo told the National Assembly that the Exxon deal was “a contract that would harm us for decades into the future”; he accused the APNU+AFC Coalition of having “sold our patrimony.” Mr. Jagdeo’s assessment has stood the test of time. But, the PPP/C have not kept their 2020 election promises and have not ensured that ExxonMobil Guyana Ltd. complies strictly with its legal obligations as a foreign corporation. Witness the ongoing litigation against oil and gas as patriotic citizens’ fight for the rule of law and fight to protect Guyana from financial disaster, while the government and the EPA have sided with Exxon.

Ambassador Theriot’s clumsy attempt to influence the outcome of our elections has exposed the ‘elephant in the room’ – to whom will the PPP/C answer – American companies or Guyanese citizens? Whom can the voters now trust? And will we finally get a parliament in which no single party can dictate and destroy Guyana’s future but all Parliamentarians have to work together in the national interest?