Dear Editor,
The price of power is already proving to be extremely costly for Guyana. The Payara approval became imminently official. As a news item that is so pathetic, it should have been relegated to the area reserved for the comics and cartoons.
Come to think of it, the Payara approval should be a cartoon, a long running one. Alison Redford, QC, former premier, one-time disgraced political operator failed her own people in Canada. What could this person do for the Guyanese public and their interests and future? Nothing! Absolutely nothing.
And that is precisely what the Payara review resulted in and delivered. What started out with much fanfare, now fades into the whimper of the now routine Guyanese oil murk. Hefty fines are nice, but who is going to twist Exxon’s arm and get it to step up and pay up? Is it worth it when endless hours and fatiguing efforts would have to be wasted to pin the people at Exxon down and make them pony up for violations?
Even if we do succeed at this, Exxon gets off cheaply and should be smirking over its good fortune. For what is sure to be defined as “hefty” in the thinking of Guyanese is nothing but a mere droplet in Exxon’s bucket. If I were an Exxon executive I would be celebrating at the outcome of the review and be much appreciative of Canada and Canadian Alison Redford who lived up to expectations.
Since Guyanese leaders and Guyanese citizens have such low expectations on returns for our oil, both would count themselves as coming out on top. It is the equivalent of giving a thousand-dollar bill to a man who had never seen one before. He thinks he is Rockefeller, Getty and Warren Buffett all rolled into one. He, too, dances on his silly head in rapturous celebration.
Leaders in the PPP government now have “hefty fines” on largely environmental issues to sell to a gullible Guyanese public. The propaganda onslaught is already underway with the Hon. Minister of Natural Resources going out in front and conditioning Guyanese minds for more of the smoothing, followed by the tarring that is in the works.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
