Latest update September 1st, 2024 12:59 AM
Apr 21, 2022 News
Kaieteur News – The majority of persons who took part in the International Republican Institute (IRI) national public opinion poll last January, are unaware as to where they could access information relating to how government will be spending profits gained from the country’s oil reserves.
A sizeable portion of the 1500 persons who took part in the survey also related a lack of interest in political news and information. These and other factors, some members of society believe, are contributing to the grim reality, that despite the presence of oil and its massive potential to lift Guyana out of poverty, a large section of society seems uninterested in knowing about this new industry.
This newspaper’s publisher, Glen Lall had dedicated three days per week on his radio programme ‘The Glenn Lall Show’ to educate citizens on the sector. Lall has also committed his newspaper to being a leading voice in information sharing on the oil and gas sector. However, Lall himself has expressed disappointment that more citizens have not come to grips with the trillion-dollar sector. He often blames the leaders of this country for “keeping the people in the dark.” In addition to his advocacy for better oil deals and level-playing field in the sector, Lall back in January, through his attorney, Mohamed R. Ali, filed an action in the High Court which outlined that the tax reliefs listed under Article 15.1 of the Petroleum Agreement, dated June 27, 2016, between the Guyana Government and the oil companies, violate the Petroleum Exploration and Production Act, the Financial Administration (and Audit) Act, the Prevention of Discrimination Act, and the Constitution. In that court case, Lall is seeking declarations to have the provisions nullified and reversed.
Meanwhile, the IRI poll found that of the 1500 persons questioned from around the country, only two percent of that number felt that the oil extraction industry is an important problem facing the country.
Veteran journalist, Adam Harris, submitted that the vast majority of citizens while not having access to information, do not understand what is happening in the oil industry and are too preoccupied with daily bread and butter issues to express interest in the massive sector.
A guest on the Politics 101 talk show discussing the results of the poll, Harris opined that there are different factors impacting citizens’ response to the local oil industry. He indicated that citizens’ have become accustom to expensive failed projects, being sidelined and left out of the decision making process, that they have simply accepted whatever the outcome of the oil industry.
Harris pointed out that among the heavily priced projects where Guyana did not receive value for money; there was the more than US$160M Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) expansion project, the US$200M Skeldon Sugar Mordernisation Project, the more than US$21M one lap top per family project and the more than US$32M E Governance Fibre Optic Cable project, which turned out to cost more than the royalty Guyana is currently receiving for its oil.
“When I add up all of that money that we throw away it turned out that that money was more than the lil royalty we getting from Exxon.” On the low number of persons concerned about oil, “…they know that nothing is coming, and they ain’t worrying cause if it come, it come,” Harris claimed.
The other side of coin, he posited, is that the message for oil has not been very clear. He said that the government has monopolised the state media in selling the oil message so those who know and understand the seriousness of the sector, must now resort to social media; which people hardly use for important information, far less to check on oil data. To this end, the senior journalist said that while citizens are looking on at the oil sector, they show little interest because they are not involved and they have little information. “This is a frighten situation,” Harris added since the ideal situation would be to have all citizens informed and aware of what is happening. Instead, he related, the majority of citizens have never seen an oil rig or a container or snap glass of the oil just to understand what it is their country is producing. “They have nothing to relate to,” Harris submitted and thus supported the findings of the IRI poll.
Another guest, Gabriel Lall, former chairman of the Guyana Gold Board expressed disappointment that the oil and gas industry is about the biggest thing to happen to Guyana since its independence, yet it is not the topic on every Guyanese’s mind. Lall also attributed citizens’ lack of interest to their lack of understanding the sector. He lauded the Kaieteur News for its efforts, though stating that he wished more of the private media organisations would pick up the slack. Outside of that, he suggested that citizens’ have been beaten to the point where mentally, they accept that they were managing before the oil and would continue to do so whether they receive anything from the resource or not. “So this again perpetuates the hegemony, the continuity of two major parties that whatever happens with this oil is meaningless because the people are saying we have to go out there and hustle, we have to go out there and struggle.”
Lall said that in the absence of government information, he would have liked to see more private media houses taking up the mantle to educate citizens and highlight to them the economically dangerous future lingering if Guyana fails to get serious about this capital intensive sector. Inevitably, Lall opined, Guyanese will have to put their muscles to the wheel and fight if they do not want to end up like other developing oil producing nations that have fallen prey to debt and continued poverty despite great oil riches. He said that while the political leaders insist on the sanctity of contracts, citizens must be educated on the sector to understand how the existing profit sharing arrangement Guyana has with the oil companies could take them into a new era of “slavery and imperialism” camouflaged by seemingly democratic processes occurring in the development of the oil sector.
Henry Jeffery, former government Minister, also expressed concern over the low number of oil interested citizens. He said some type of motivation is needed to make them aware of what is at stake because the poll, he continued says two things, either citizens believe the sector is in good hands so they are not worried, or that oil is a secondary concern and they are not bothered. The IRI poll was conducted through the agency’s ‘Strengthening Democracy Through Polling Data and Peace building’ programme.
Mineral and oil rich country borrowing to feed, clothe and house its citizens.
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