Dear Editor,
American oil behemoth, Exxon, says that Guyana’s former Executive Director of the local Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is not being honest. Our own Government of Guyana, either in the form of leaders or ministers, and through their public comments and postures, has essentially taken the same tack, said the same thing, presented the same stances in close enough ways. Now reading, observing, thinking Guyanese have to make a take a stand in this matter about which side is telling the truth. That is, who is representing exactly, if not as close as possible, to what transpired relative to discussions, understandings, and conclusions about obligations, and any limits, on the vital issue of full liability coverage in the event of an oil spill at our offshore operations.
I mentioned above that Guyanese have a choice to make on whom to trust, which one of the clashing parties to believe. This is not about party or cult leadership. It is about what safeguards Guyana; it is of what secures a shade more smartly the future of Guyana, its oil wealth, and the destiny of later generations. If Vincent Adams is found to be not honest, he deserves to be pilloried by all of us, and run out of town. If it is that our own leaders and people in our institutions are deceiving us, then Guyanese again have one choice only. It is for how long more and for what else, they are ready and willing to vest their confidence in their leaders, how much they are willing to accept blindly, whatever it is that those same leaders find it fit to tell them.
Editor, I make my own position as simple and as clear as I can. In any conversation and deliberation that demand a judgment call, a conclusion, where the choice involves Exxon and Dr. Vincent Adams, I will always be for Vincent Adams. That is, until such time that I discover that he has played games, or he has misrepresented what occurred. The American oil company has a long and putrid history of deceiving and taking advantage of host countries in the Third World. The company’s history is even more sordid in compromising dirty and corrupt national leaders in most places that it has visited. In sum, Exxon has been a callous and calculating corporate monster when dollars and cents are involved, and when it has to engage in any low and dirty trick, any subterfuge, to overpower people like Vincent Adams, and a troubled society like Guyana.
Further, when I am confronted by the same choice, the time to decide where I stand in any conflicts about truth and ethics and personal honour with our leaders (and all should know of the reach of my net) on one side and Dr. Vincent Adams on the other, there is no choice to be made at all. Every time and for every issue, I would be in the corner of Vincent Adams, and the likes of people as him, whether black, white, brown, Guyanese or of foreign roots. My own leaders known and believed secret histories damn them, stand against them. I have stated in the most unambiguous and unswerving terms where I stand.
My Guyanese brothers and sisters have before them the same challenges that I faced on this raging clash between the parties named. I urge them to come out and make known where they stand publicly. This is not a referendum on Exxon. It is not a verdict for or against any President or Vice President or Minister (or Opposition member). It would stand, though, as the most powerful testimony, the most ardent and incontestable evidence, of where all of us are with this incomparable endowment from divine providence, or nature, or some mysterious forces of physics and chemistry, and things of which I know less than little. I have staked out where I stand, my line drawn, and its blood red. My fellow Guyanese must now show their hand.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall