Dear Editor,
People are now saying VP Jagdeo is a sell-out to ExxonMobil. But I disagree, because the PPP leadership forfeited the interests of the poor people of Guyana to ExxonMobil since 2015.
Robert Persaud quietly awarded the Canje/Kaieteur oil blocks to non-entities in 2015 days before his party lost the election, and then ExxonMobil quickly bought into these two blocks (and is now in control). The deserving people of Guyana lost US$100’s million and even billions by these two awards, by this forfeiture of our natural resource wealth.
So it is my opinion the PPP leadership have been acting in ways that benefit ExxonMobil at the expense of the people of Guyana since 2015. And I ask why would public servants do such a thing? Is it not complete dereliction of duty of a public servant to squander the country’s wealth?
If VP Jagdeo is intent to sell-out Guyana to ExxonMobil, by approving the Payara project and by not re-negotiating the contract for the Stabroek Block, then I can see why Carl Greenidge and Robert Persaud have been brought into the new government.
But there is a possible solution, or at least an option we as citizens can try. Consider two failures of the Coalition outlined below, and then consider how these apply to the current PPP government.
Failure number 1. The Coalition government believed ExxonMobil would save them and help them win the 2020 election, even though I explained to them this was unlikely to work. In my presentation to cabinet in March 2017, I also warned that if the Coalition government blindly assumed first oil would make it win the election, and then it lost, it might panic and try to rig the election. And this is exactly what happened. So I was proven correct on both counts, since the Coalition lost the vote even with first oil, and then tried to rig the result.
Failure number 2. Another failure with the Coalition was due to its supporters, who failed to hold the Coalition to account. It seemed that most of the Afro-Guyanese elites (who I presume were mainly supporters of the race-based Coalition government), decided to go along for the ride (“it is our time now”), instead of trying to help their own government succeed by holding their government to account. Think of how successful the last government could have been if their own supporters were passionate about calling them out. This challenge would have created a more efficient and useful government. But instead supporters of the Coalition used their energy to criticize people like myself, when I called for oil blocks to be transparently auctioned instead of given away, when I highlighted the need for a renegotiation of the Stabroek Block, etc. So the Afro-Guyanese elites helped their own government squander a golden opportunity for Guyana, and wasted the last five years.
So now let’s apply these lessons to the new PPP government. Since the same can happen to the PPP.
The current PPP leadership believes they will benefit by selling-out Guyana to ExxonMobil, like the Coalition before them, but this can backfire over the next five years as Guyanese realize how much they have been cheated, and realize how much oil wealth has been given away. There could very well be a popular movement against the sell-out, which would work against the PPP at the next election.
Hence the indo-Guyanese elites (who I presume are mainly supporters of the race-based PPP party), must not sit back and let the PPP fail, like what happened with the Coali-tion and its supporters. The indo-Guyanese elites can help Guyana succeed, and can save their own party from the current misguided PPP leadership, by holding the PPP leadership to account. By publicly challenging the PPP leadership on critical issues right now, such as on the need to withhold approval of the Payara project, such as on the need for a renegotiation of the contract for the Stabroek Block, etc.
If the Indo-Guyanese elites do not become very vocal ASAP, and try to constrain the wayward behaviour of VP Jagdeo et al., these elites will not be helping the PPP and will not be helping Guyana.
Please remember Guyana is in an extremely strong position compared to ExxonMobil right now. We can withhold approval of Payara as leverage until we get a new re-negotiated contract for the Stabroek Block. Time is on our side. Do not believe those who want us to think otherwise. And afterwards we can rescind the awards of the Canje and Kaieteur Blocks.
But by VP Jagdeo not even trying to achieve these pro-Guyana goals, he consigns us to always be a “shit-hole country”, and consigns us to be like Equatorial Guinea and the other failed oil states, where leaders work to forfeit the people’s oil wealth. But the indo-Guyanese elites, traditional supporters of the PPP, can stand-up and insist we take the high road instead of the low road.
Yours faithfully,
Jan Mangal
