From elections petitions to prospects for the people

May 02, 2021 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Guyana’s Chief Justice has ruled and the last elections petition of the opposition coalition is down for the moment. We say for the moment, because the opposition has indicated that it is not out and will appeal this all the way to CCJ. With that in mind, our thought processes flow along these questioning lines. After that, then what? What about the kind of governance that will prevail here in Guyana? What kind of people will we be, with the relationships that we foster or not? What are our prospects as a land of so many peoples, with so much heaped on our natural resource banquet table?
No matter how we twist or turn, this is more of a racial problem than a judicial one. Therefore, it is one that is best handled at the local and political level, where calm heads and profound minds go to the pains of examining the issues of where we are, how we got there and what we need to do about them, if only so that this society can genuinely position itself as a nation to benefit to the maximum from its blessings.
There was the recent development involving an opposition delegation that held a meeting with ExxonMobil’s top local people. Some may see that as a positive initial step, which is hard to disagree with, but there is so much that is missing from that picture. We had the prior David Granger Administration, which Exxon made rings around first and then had its way throughout. Now we have the PPP in power and it has become evident that ExxonMobil is again making utter fools of Guyanese leaders and having them eating out of the company’s hands. We take that a step further, while all the time trying to maintain a temperate attitude and description of where and how things are.
ExxonMobil not only has today’s PPP leaders eating out of its hands, but all the local political powers do so on hands and knees and beg for the privilege of doing so. The coalition went alone and was found not up to the job and look at where it left us and where we are presently.
The first lesson is simple: divided we fall, together we prevail. We do better as a united and formidable Guyanese political bloc. When we turn up before ExxonMobil half-assed, we get halfway house treatment and end up with half measures. We are robbed, taken advantage of and then insulted in the bargain. To the board of directors and senior management team of ExxonMobil, as well as its billion-dollar investors, we are the best bargain anywhere, perhaps of all time.
Second, in this time of court petitions and appeals, we have said that democracy is a wonderful development for Guyana, but Guyana also has to be ready for it. Specifically, its political leaders and professional managers must manifest that indeed they are ready for democracy in the maturity, responsibility and integrity that are essential parts of their persons and their practices. They set tone and way for juniors and citizens. The problem is that we have had very little of that maturity and responsibility and integrity in our political behaviours, our management of the business of the people and our management and control of personal inclinations to greed and corruption. It is not now and has never been, about clean governance, no matter how much was manifestoed and committed to, but always rarely, if ever, delivered.
Third, when we talk of clean governance for the people, we become the enemy, which now seems to be a continuous state, given the hard and sharp reactions of one government after another. They and their supporters, from so-called towering thinkers to the tiny people in the street, love when we stand up, speak out and scorch the government of the day for its many shortcoming and financial sins. However, when they are out of opposition benches and running the government and we do the exact same things, we are poisonous… Our response is simple and unyielding and in Latin first: Fiat justitia ruat Caelum – let justice be done though the heavens fall.