Dear Editor,
I have observed from the various articles and publications in the press that the Executive Branch of the Government solely participated in the fashioning of a contract which was duly executed by the Executive Branch of Government with the world’s giant oil company Exxon.
One of the terms of the contract as I understand it is that the Parliament of Guyana, the highest law making body of the Land cannot alter the terms of the contract. Parliament, whose members were duly elected by the people and represents the entire population of Guyana had no say or contribution to the terms and conditions of the document that was arbitrarily and unilaterally signed by the Executive Branch of the Government.
The Guyana Parliament was never a party to the contract nor were they consulted on the terms of the contract. My question is, how can any institution or legal persona that is not a party to a contract be fettered by the terms of such a contract?
It appears the other branch of Government, the Judiciary, is also muzzled by the oppressive terms of this contract which are inimical to the people of Guyana whose resources are now contracted to be plundered by Exxon.
What is the remedy? In a country of peasants and hard-working marginalized people of which over 33% are unemployed it appears to me if the contract cannot be renegotiated by the parties thereto, the very Executive Branch of Government that agreed to the terms and Exxon, to give equitable terms to the people of Guyana the only remedy that will be left is that a new generation of incensed and deprived Guyanese, like the people of Ghana, will have no alternative but to agitate, oppose and demand that the Plunderer be Nationalized.
The patriot, Burnham, whose policy the President and Government espoused to embrace always proclaimed to foreign investors, if the terms are not favourable to the Government and people of Guyana then its resources shall remain intact for another generation of Guyanese.
Yours faithfully,
Jailall Kissoon
Attorney at Law