Dear Editor,
There is gratitude that Clerk of the National Assembly, Mr. Sherlock Isaacs, corrected himself. This immediately opened a new chapter of disagreement re whether private companies could be summoned before parliament. The highest house of the Guyanese people is not a place for frivolity or facetiousness. Thus, the thinking is that when a private company is called to parliament, serious objectives are in mind. When a company of the singular presence and incomparable footprint of Exxon is politely invited to appear in the house of Guyanese, then there can be only one conclusion. Serious national matters are involved. For what is Exxon if not the spaceship that carries Guyana to the moon. When parliament calls, Exxon cannot decide that it is time to go into the temporary decommissioning of dry docks. That is, beached, disabled, hot under the collar.
It was/is the Natural Resources Sectoral Committee (NRSC) that had called Exxon before, some six years ago. The NRSC certainly has a great sweep to its name, and the fact that it is a parliamentary one gives it some traces of standing. The standing to invite and grace with presence. The comparison may be wasted, but I am thinking of the US Congress and its power to call, summon, demand an appearance from the heads of such legends of US commerce as GM, Boeing and, yes, Exxon. Even the Mafia was hauled in, as the Kefauver commission swatted and grunted with that untalkative beast. Since Guyana is so much about things American, may I tender that there is a hole in Guyana’s parliament when the same cannot be done here. The PPP Government said no. The PNC said, sez who. I am saying on that no from Bharrat Jagdeo get the (delete please) …out of here. If it is no, for whatever reason, through any expediency, then let that no be reversed to a yes. As US President Bush the Younger once said, “bring it on down.’ I think that Mr. Alistair Routledge needs to present himself before parliament. Whatever has gotten into Jagdeo’s head about private companies being spared the indignity of an appearance he should get rid of it and get Mr. Exxon Guyana, President Routledge, to turn up pronto in Guyana’s parliament. Surely, he does not have that kind of immunity. Or does he? If it was the PNC that adjusted things, Jagdeo must have the ability to reverse it. After all, he has made a nice living kicking down, overturning, and dissing everything that the PNC did in its last outing at the wheel.
A little more on this NRSC of Guyana. If it cannot send a warm invitation to a private company that means so much to Guyana’s economy, Guyanese destiny, then what can it do? Of what use is it, other than commanding a few pork knockers and perverse public service officers to appear before it. That’s not a national sectoral committee, but a national sex change one reduced to doing that to itself.
If it is parliament today that Exxon can thumb its nose at, then I think that Guyana’s judiciary could be next. So, what do we have here: a country with systems to which all are answerable, or the schemes of politicians. The PNC seh is nah dem change anything. By the brilliant exercise of subtraction, the remainder seems like the PPP. Apologies for mixing up subtraction and long division. Now when the remainder is the PPP, then the political and environmental logic leads to one man and whatever new one is in his head.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
