Dear Editor,
Christopher Ram is amongst the very best accountants in our country. Christopher Ram has also established himself amongst our top lawyers in our country. Christopher Ram is also a personal friend and has my respect in all of these endeavours, but Christopher Ram in a column he has been given by Stabroek News for the purpose of writing about oil and gas published yesterday (4th January 2025) has used his column to call out the President of our country and pronounce upon the politics of his decision making with regard to the contract entered into by the government of Guyana with ExxonMobil in an unapologetically insulting manner. In doing so Christopher Ram has displayed his abysmal ignorance of how to manage the political priorities of our country.
Ram begins his column by quoting the words of President Ali before he became President in reference to the contract (the 2016 PSA) in which the President expressed the view that no Guyanese could support the conditions of the contract and that “we have to go towards relooking at these contracts, renegotiating these contracts……..” Ram then takes a huge leap to conclude that because President Ali, at his most recent Press Conference indicated that he had no intention of writing Exxon on this matter at this time, that the President has reneged on his word, calling it “a truly regrettable situation” which does no justice or honour to President Ali or to the highest office in the land”. What absolute rubbish.
What political leader, or for that matter what business leader in his right mind, does not change his mind and position when making a critical decision in response to changing circumstances and differing priorities?
The People’s Progressive Party, for instance, was not so long ago a declared Marxist Party. It is not so now. I don’t hear Christopher Ram complaining that the Party is to be blamed for changing its ideological position from the one it once campaigned on or that it has betrayed its trust to the people.
Ram then adds insult to injury by writing that, “now the President and the PNC adore the same exploitative oil contract against the rest of Guyana”, (Ram includes the reference to the PNC in order for him to appear politically objective in his attack on the President), but nowhere has the President ever said that he supports the contract. In fact, in the Press Conference, the President made it quite clear that he didn’t.
Ram then goes on to devote much of his column pointing out what is already well known, that there are clauses in the contract which arguably permit for renegotiation of the contract and that indeed a smart constitutional lawyer could argue that the egregious nature of the contract is in violation of the constitutional duties of the government to protect the country’s natural resources. My response to that is so what. In the first place, it was not the PPP government which entered into the contract, and, in any event, the circumstances governing both the interest of Exxon and the Government of Guyana at the time of their entering into this contract are entirely different to those governing their respective interests today.
In fact, Christopher Ram is aiming at the wrong target. It takes two to tango. The renegotiation of any contract requires that both parties to the contract agree to negotiate. What makes Christopher Ram conclude that ExxonMobil has any interest at all in entering into renegotiating the contract. It matters not if, as is no doubt the case, that from the President of Guyana down to just about every Guyanese is in agreement that it was and is a lousy contract and would like to see a much better one for Guyana. In contrast, however, ExxonMobil has shown absolutely no interest whatever in negotiating a new contract and what President would be foolish enough to write proposing a renegotiation knowing that the answer would be ‘no thanks’.
President Ali has all of Guyana’s interests that reach well beyond the matter of the details of the Exxon Contract, to deal with. Our country is under the clear and present danger every day of the threat of a Venezuelan invasion. Our country must rely upon its friends and allies to protect us. The United States of America is one of our greatest friends and most powerful allies. ExxonMobil is one of the most powerful companies in the USA. Access to oil and gas resources from a friendly country in which a major American Company is operating is of extreme importance to the government of the USA. These are the considerations and circumstances which the President of our country must take under consideration in arriving at the political decisions he must make in the interest of Guyana. Yet it appears that this is beyond the understanding and comprehension of my friend, Christopher Ram.
Ram’s conclusion of accusing that President Ali ”has broken the bond of trust with the citizens……to protect the country’s natural resources” , is horribly wrong. In fact, President Ali, in his exercising his judgement of when and when not to press for renegotiation of the Exxon contract knows exactly what he is doing to protect all, not just some, of the interest of our country and our people.
Yours sincerely,
Kit Nascimento
