Dear Editor,
The statement by the caretaker APNU+AFC coalition regime in response to Global Witness about giving away Guyana’s natural resources as well as billions of dollars to foreign multinational corporations opens up a can of worms rather than convincing all and sundry that the country’s interest was paramount. Notwithstanding that the regime chose to send a statement to SN – which ironically is a newspaper that it has withdrawn substantial ads from – rather than meeting the press, reveals a convoluted position designed to confuse the public. That said, the regime’s main message in the declared statement was that it got the best deal under the circumstances. The rest of the statement was a campaign pitch asking its supporters to stick with the regime’s game plan in the face of the inevitable upcoming general election on March 2.
The regime’s pressured/pushed argument, namely from Venezuela and the oil giants, does not hold water. In one sentence, the regime has implicated itself saying essentially that when Venezuela sneezes, Guyana catches a cold. Understandably, Guyana’s oil finds have hit the international airwaves, and Venezuela is privy to this coveted information, but that country has been reeling from political upheavals, economic chaos, and social dissonance.
It is in a weak state to risk anything outside of the country like, say, under the Hugo Chavez administration of anti-American rhetoric. Moreover, the oil giants are aligned with the United States, and any crazy move from Venezuela to disturb Guyana’s sovereignty would have certainly faced resistance from the United States and its powerful allies. Put differently, as soon as the oil finds went public, Guyana was golden. Its sovereignty has been protected by the United States because of the huge foreign economic investment. Given this situation, one is unconvinced that ExxonMobil would have pressured and pushed the Guyana team to sign an oil contract against its will, and even if it did, the Venezuelan threat would have appeared weak to anyone well-versed in geopolitical/economic affairs. Was the Guyana team led by a few incompetent individuals who were susceptible to the basic sensations of life, sleeping in five-star hotels and dining in the best restaurants, etc?
Concomitantly, one would have expected the contract to go through the chain of command within the APNU+AFC regime, eventually reaching the desk of the President of Guyana for final approval. I bet that the president did see and perhaps read the contract but went along with what Trotman and Greenidge, among others, recommended, a lop-sided contract.
Sound and even minimal transformative leadership would have been to at least engage the PPP opposition in negotiating with the oil giants, and in not doing so, the regime has promoted and purported an ill-advised one party approach rather than a national initiative to Guyanese’s ownership of oil and gas. The consequence is that we have a situation in which a few individuals within the unpopular caretaker regime practically gave away the country’s resources. In tandem with this malfeasance has been a less discussed characteristic of those in the Guyana team, and that is, an inferiority complex that erodes their confidence when sitting, discussing and negotiating with “skilled” individuals in foreign multinational corporations.
Yours faithfully,
Lomarsh Roopnarine
