Dear Editor,
PPP. PNC. AFC. And whoever else will surface in time. These are the groups on which the minds of Guyanese are concentrated, eyes fixed, and passions invested. PPP. PNC. AFC. How wrong can the entire population of a country be! To what warped, crippling mental state has the so-called Guyanese intelligentsia driven itself, imprisoned itself? What could be said with fairness and conviction as to the helpless fate to which the local cognos-centi, university men, smart men, knowledgeable men, street men, delivered themselves? Women are not exempt. When they can’t see, when they can’t speak, when they think by the book, they become as lifeless as a book? Dog eared, tattered, smudged and smeared, best left forgotten and untouched. The elections season is kicking into gear, revving for attention, gaining momentum. PPP. PNC. AFC. And whichever never-see-come-to-see. Excuse me, but I must be harsh, unsparing. What about Exxon? What about Exxon, puzzled Guyanese ask? Let me spill the beans, expose this American company’s dirty secret, its shadowy perversity, its ugly depravity.
I would like to exchange places with Mr. Alistair Routledge. Guyanese know the name well, too well. No further introduction, CV, LinkedIn profile, is necessary. When Guyanese are caught up in their traditional foolishness about PPP, PNC, and AFC, they take their eyes off Exxon. Get ready for the sledge to the head. Exxon is a participant in Guyana’s elections. Exxon is the most cunning, complete operator in Guyanese elections. Because Exxon doesn’t have one dog in the elections, nor two big, bad, dogs in this year’s circus, that high-wire act involving who has the most votes, who has rigged, and who is sure to be the loser(s). Currently, Exxon has three political entries in the 2025 elections, and the dunderhead tragedy of it all is that Guyanese are not paying any attention to the company. Their attention and passions (and prejudices, of course) are fixated in the same way as their ancient ancestors: PPP, PNC, AFC. What a waste of mental and physical energies. What waste of a whole country!
Exxon has entered three political parties in the 2025 elections, and Guyanese have not caught on, so consumed they are: PPP, PNC, AFC. Guyanese stare at the Exxon monsters, and all they see are the domestic old higues, the local Dutch maan, the baccoos roaming. I make my position clear as a bell and let it ring high and low: The PPP, PNC, and AFC are all Exxon’s plants, Exxon’s proxies, Exxon’s provocateurs. If those are too sophisticated for the regular oil saturated citizens of this Republic, then I submit that the PPP, PNC, and AFC are nothing but fronts for Exxon Guyana. They talk about who is more racial, and with justification. But do they talk about Exxon and what it is doing to Guyanese? NO! They (the three parties) blabber and bluster about who is more corrupt, and they’re are on good grounds. But do they talk about Exxon and how Guyana is corrupted by its presence, its shadow? Like hell they do. Like hell they will. They point fingers at one another about who is the better (or worst) rigger of elections, and with solid reason. But do they dare say one word about how Exxon has rigged their minds, rearranged their marbles, and run tractors over what’s left of their characters? No! No! And No!
Fellow Guyanese, there are simple reasons for all their silence, their impotence. In Guyanese pidgin: when haan deh in tigah mout, yuh can taak. In American English, when there are grand bargains made, when debts are owed, when political existence hangs in the hands of Woods and Routledge, then I, too, would be for Exxon. I would fill the heads of Guyanese with old memories, old bigotries, and old catastrophes. It is democracy, Guyana style. It is the perpetuation of Exxon’s supremacy, PPP-PNC-AFC style. The biggest threat to Guyanese is Exxon. But the PPP, PNC, and AFC have Guyanese glaring, hating, and preparing for battle against one another. Exxon has worked its magic so well with those three parties that its name doesn’t feature in the looming elections. It is the power of oil masterminds and oil craftsmen. If I were a citizen of somewhere else, I might applaud the clever handiwork and entrapping political footwork of Exxon. Even write a book. But I am Guyanese, and because of that ID card, I have this cause, as dangerous as it is, whatever else it may be.
I go quietly, leave this parting note. When the PPP, PNC, and AFC are a study in resistance, in slipperiness, in artful dodges about the biggest development ever, and the biggest presence by far, in Guyana, then Exxon has mastered the local universe. Now the Americans have the field all to themselves, with one nonnegotiable limitation. No mention of Exxon. No attention drawn to Exxon. One question: who is the PPP, PNC, AFC fronting for, electorally competing for, if not Exxon? Guyana’s three major political parties and all are proxies for Exxon in the 2025 elections. Nicely done, Messrs. Alistair and Darren. A vote for the PPP, PNC, or AFC is a vote for Exxon. Happy voting, my fellow citizens.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
