Dear Editor,
A question that needs to be answered is whether patriotic Presidents such as Forbes Burnham or Cheddi Jagan or Desmond Hoyte would acquiesce to the demands of a foreign country using sanctions against Guyanese businessmen? Guyanese entrepreneurs have created significant employment for Guyanese, contributed hundreds of billions of GY$ in taxes over the years to the Guyana Revenue Authority, and given much in financial and material support to the poor. While all this is ongoing, foreign business entities are allowed to exploit billions of United States dollars from the patrimony of Guyana. The amount exploited by these foreign entities is a thousand plus times more than any alleged losses to the Guyana treasury that may have been caused by the combined undeclared revenue of Guyanese born entrepreneurs. The awful reluctance of the ExxonMobil led group and the Government of Guyana to release the estimated billions of barrels of Guyana’s oil reserves is cruel and unusual punishment drilled into Guyanese industries and citizens.
According to the credible S&P Global Commodity Insights, the Guyana Basin has 18.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil equivalent (boe) as of May 2024. Clearly, Guyana’s credit rating and access to cheap capital globally would be boosted significantly if formal disclosures of our oil reserves are made by ExxonMobil and/or GoG. Failure to disclose the current oil reserves is a huge denial of benefits to the Guyanese people, the treasury, and the entire economic ecosystem. Emperor Constantine said “I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees.” It’s not how long you live that makes a complete life. The virtues that you live by determine the fullness and meaningfulness of your contribution to our temporary existence.
Our political leaders should show some steel in their spine and stand up for all Guyanese: the poor, the rich, and our working class by defending the rights of Guyanese and the sovereignty of our Guyana. Our politicians should not be ‘political sunshine patriots or cowards’ and shrink from the service of their countrymen. We have a situation in Guyana where a cartel led by ExxonMobil does not pay corporate taxes on billions of United States Dollars in profits generated in Guyana. This is not called tax evasion because an agreement without precedent or common sense was signed by the Guyana Government that allowed for victimized Guyana to pay corporate taxes; which Exxon uses as a credit in the USA to reduce taxes that they incurred in jurisdictions outside of Guyana. (www.oggn.website/category/contributors/nigel-hinds/)
The absence of any Government of Guyana oil production monitoring system is the twin tragedy of the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA). The ExxonMobil group exemplifies exploitation on steroids, fueled by unsanctioned, untouchable, and uncaring multinational foreign investors that are partners to the PSA with the GoG. Guyanese born entrepreneurs provide employment to tens of thousands of Guyanese and pay taxes as assessed by the Guyana Revenue Authority and are given no such tax waiver bonanza, much less a tax credit. Many of them are fearful that our spineless government will kneel to their overlords and discard them in a backstabbing manner, the second any directive is imposed on our so-called sovereign state.
It is not business as usual in Guyana as our working class and non-working poor are being strangled and suffocated by ExxonMobil, who drafted the ignoble and misleadingly named Production Sharing Agreement (PSA). Each passing day, we become more subjugated to the Western powers, due to the unwillingness to improve the livelihood of our people, amidst the tsunami of oil money that keeps our economic growth expanding at exponential rates, while the poverty rate of Guyanese sadly remains over 40%. Almost every media pundit and their shadows are attacking capitalism by calling it corruption. Corruption and racism are two of the major subsets of capitalism, both being indistinguishable from the commercial capitalist system as Dr. Walter Rodney attested to multiple times in his seminal work: “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.” How do corporations make profits? How do individuals trading as businesses make profits? How do the green scheme environmentalists and non-governmental organizations source funds for themselves and their organizations?
Capitalism is incorrigible and indestructible. It has always been the dominant economic system. It is the basis of all economic systems. The capitalist system will only alleviate poverty to the extent that political and corporate leaders are not all about self-service and focusing on being status-clingers. The state of affairs in this era highlights that politicians are the fastest growing wealth group, locally and internationally. While France basked in the glory and lavish festivities of the Paris 2024 Olympics, simultaneously, thousands of Palestinians were being genocided in Palestine, and global poverty was largely ignored and thrown behind the backburner – out of sight; as was the great nation of Russia denied participation at the 2024 Olympics. Does the foregoing not qualify as so-called corruption? The current global governance and economic system would collapse without corruption capitalism.
Should only the outsized nominated Ministers, their bosses, and their acolytes have Prado-like 4,500 CC Vehicles, Gardeners, Housekeepers, Drivers, Super salaries, Tax Exemptions, and Duty-Free Concessions; paid for by taxpayers? Is this not the definition of corruption and lawfare or capitalism? Life’s foremost impediment is waiting for tomorrow; waiting and waiting until the day is lost; procrastination is life’s main drawback. Let no day of grace be allowed to the ungrateful backstabbers!
Seneca.
Sincerely,
Nigel Hinds