Was this country governing itself?

Nov 16, 2020 Editorial

Kaieteur News -The opposition ran Guyana for five years. It had access to every sheet of paper involving the business of this country. And particularly with our oil, given the sharp daily exposures from Kaieteur News surrounding that same oil. And yet people that were in charge in the former government, and who lead the now opposition come before the people they swore to serve faithfully, cleanly, and competently to posture that they are all ignorant, know nothing about the oversight of this oil. The best they can offer is suspicious silence.
They are studies in evasion, of discomforting silence, of near total uselessness. And that was before while they held the powerful reins of office; and again today when they are an opposition that exists in name only.
The questions come in a flood: what were they doing? If none of them can speak authoritatively to what happened with Guyana’s prized oil possessions, then how was this country being governed? Who in the coalition had the interests of this society at heart and was, therefore, completely committed to doing part in the most ethical manner to protect Guyana’s prospects? Who was leading and governing and responsible for the general and specific directions of this country? If it was not them, since they know nothing, then a reasonable position arrived at is this: was this country running itself, meaning that it was operating on autopilot, floating aimlessly? If something as enormous as oil (and what took place with it during their watch) leaves today’s opposition members fumbling for words, looking totally foolish, and giving the appearance of an absence of any credibility, then what about the less visible things, the less material things that still have much meaning for Guyanese?
Since this is how the opposition comes across before a disbelieving world then, for all intents and purposes, it has no persuasive power as an opposition. It cannot be trusted to hold aloft and carry the mantle of the people in ways that bring benefits, what is constructive for them. Which citizen, supporter or otherwise, can have any confidence in such a group, this kind of suspect leadership, this state of feeble presence to governance of anything in Guyana?
At this point, we must be unequivocal on something, and unsparing, regardless of who is agitated by what we share as to where we stand. The 2015-2020 leaders in the coalition government had to know something about those oil transactions involving the Canje and Kaieteur Blocks. It is our belief that they just had to know, but have settled for saying that they know nothing. They are too street smart for them to be fooled into complacency, or to distance from what could have likely had a significant amount of juice for them, to not want to know, given what was involved and the potential for huge personal benefits.
On the other hand, and to be fair to all, we proceed in another direction, with the assumption that the leaders in the camp of the coalition government were bent on doing what was best for the expectant citizens of this society. With them being in charge and in a position of complete oversight as to what happened with our oil blocks and the incalculable political mileage to be gained, then it was an opportunity not to be passed up, through nonchalance or negligence.
No responsible government would do that, no ethical government with its finger on the pulse of the nation’s prospects would have done otherwise. Not with Guyana’s oil developments and promises being the hottest thing in this country, in the whole world for that matter.
Since, this did not happen then (when in government) and is definitely not happening now for approximately 10 weeks (when in opposition), there is only one question left hanging: what is the coalition leadership really up to? What does it know? When did it know what is done with our oil? And for what purposes is it using the knowledge gained to benefit itself, at the expense of Guyanese? By any rational norm, the opposition’s silence and futile pawing in the air on our oil condemns it to beliefs centered in the worst forms of betrayals.