Dear Editor,
“No to an oil refinery”, the SN editorial of August 21st is a gem. I think it is well articulated, well-argued, and well substantiated. Taking in the sum of it, this thought cannot be suppressed, it just fights its way to the surface: who and what do the likes of the irrepressible Dr. Ali, Dr. Jagdeo, Dr. Singh, and all the other doctors of, ahm of, good intentions in the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) think of first and foremost, when they crystallize and finalize their ideas about projects and other costly developments? Without a doubt, it is almost never about the Guyanese people, it is certainly not about what accrues to their benefit first. Rather, it is always about forever coming up with some scheme, in the worst meaning of the term.
A refinery, my god, is this a joke? A good thing on the face of it, but we don’t have auditors to review and rein-in whatever is going on with billions of expense dollars swirling around like sandflies. Each dollar is a sting and a drop of blood drawn from an exposed and prostrate nation. A refinery, yes, indeed; but only when we have the people to stand around it from the inception, and then stand over it, from thereafter. Enter, the Guyanese diaspora? Or the door thrown open for more PPP denizens from outer darkness? What the Guyana Revenue Authority was frank enough to admit publicly, the Guyana Environmental Protection Agency pretends to have a handle on and, worse still, know what it is doing. Exxon has established the equivalent of a flotilla (from a Guyanese [British] perspective, it is an armada out there, and it is as if Venezuela has ringed off our waters and declared it a No Entry zone for locals. But there is news of an oil refinery when our political minds at the top need more urgent refinement. It is not what is taught in books or schools.
In essence, this country is woefully lacking in what it takes for managing, understanding, controlling, and standing up for itself with the basics of oil production in the upstream arena, but already the PPP super schemers have come up with this plot about an oil refinery. To put differently, Guyana and government are at sea about who is doing what where out there, how much is found and when, how much flared, how much produced and shipped, and so on, but now there is this latest political hustle called an oil refinery. Eyeballing at high speed, the complex processes involved (an impressive work, indeed), what becomes clear is that the PPP and its doctors almost unmatched in financial wizardry and witchery, have given another slice of residual power, but this time to likeminded operators from the Dominican Republic. No wonder the President is so hot on Spanish in the classroom.
Taking stock, despite all (maybe because) of the rash of activities and speeches, there is the sense of Guyana rising to the skies. For sure, the physical structures are going up, but the voids and deficits multiply about how much Guyanese are involved in them, what Guyana actually gets from these fanciful schemes. This is how the PPP hands over pieces of Guyana to Chinese, Yankees, and these refiners from the regional Hebrides. Most definitely the PPP is up to its neck in the collection business, except it is not for country nor citizens. Separately, I agree that a strategic reserve is a sounder undertaking than an oil refinery, but SN lapsed in this department. There is less money in that for the sharks and serpents.
Considering all of this, these two closing thoughts are shared. First, Guyana is obviously at the primary stage in the oil game. Yet, there is this pretense by the political doctors that this country is already at the university level in the industry. None of them know a fraction of the oil alphabet, but there is delving into the equivalent of relativity theory and Copernican visions. The second thought is what dominates the thinking of the PPP, and it is represented by that good ole Americanism: WIIFM. To the unknowing, it stands for what is in it for ME. Have a nice day, everyone.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
