Dear Editor,
This should be the biggest, most joyful celebration of the Guyanese year, with the sole reason being because it is our own. We all have individual preferences, with the Christmas Season widely enjoyed across Guyana, by many citizens from all walks of life. There are other national holidays with significance and appeal, but Mashramani is ours, belongs to us. In this tumultuous Age of Oil in Guyana, Mashramani should possess a kind of transformational nationwide fervour that brings us together and binds us together, except that it doesn’t. Nothing does in this deeply and bitterly polarized society, and we wonder what could, with a glance at this newfound oil and its promised power to improve the lives of every citizen, including those not from here.
On this day, there will the usual chatter from political leaders about ‘One Guyana’ and that elusive oneness that we labour futilely for, and which has become the Holy Grail that we say we are about, but really are not. On Mashramani Day 2022, ‘One Guyana’ has a sweet and stirring sound to it. But immediately, reality should slap Guyanese in the face, startle them out of their complacency, hurry them to wakefulness. For there is not one political leader from the government or the coalition (or one of those hangers-on and also rans) who is so stupid, so self-destructive, as to think and actually talk of anything else but ‘One Guyana.’ The proof of its power comes from the sincerity and genuineness of those responsible for it, because when those are not there, then it is but one more political slogan that is cheaper and staler than the ones before it, that promises much, delivers nothing, and results in Guyanese being trapped in the same draining place.
If local political movers and shakers, this PPP/C government, this coalition opposition, are really sincere and really serious about bringing Guyana together, as they will exclaim and proclaim, on this Mashramani Day in some form, then they know what they have to do, both. They must reach across the divide, with somebody making the first move, to bring people together for a meeting of local minds, on how to get more for our oil, which means more for all of this ‘One Guyana’ that is the latest deception bandied about in the streets and from behind microphones.
We have this oil and the world wants it, none as much as Exxon, since without it, the company is doomed to a slow death. Matters are as clear and concrete as that, and the President, Vice President, Ministers, Opposition Leader, and even the most limited member of the cabinet and the wider parliament all know this. They must all want to go after Exxon and get more for Guyana. They will if they are together, in the spirit and essence of Mashramani, and they stand up with one voice and show the divided people that they are unified in this vision for more for country and every citizen. There is not one doubt in our minds that they will succeed in bringing out every able-bodied Guyanese, plus some of the elders and sick and not so strong, into the street in massed protest against this abominable oil contract.
On this national holiday, our own one, Guyanese can be marshalled to get into Exxon’s face with a raised fist and say: not a drop more of this precious oil birthright, until there is what is fair and reasonable and equitable. So that we Guyanese can live like human beings, we the ones who are the owners of this fabulous, undreamed-of wealth. Exxon will still make plenty of money from this country’s oil, but Guyanese will not be forced to make do and get by with whatever pittances come their way from it.
When we stand together against Exxon, then revelations will come on how quickly it rushes to the renegotiation table. Then we can have a Mashramani and Easter and Christmas that each and every Guyanese is due from this oil wealth of ours.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
