Why is this word ‘renegotiation’ so feared by the PPP/C Government?

Aug 20, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – We are baffled by how leaders in the PPP/C Government bend over backwards, twist themselves into knots, and try every trick in the book to hide from renegotiation of the odious oil contract that Guyana has with ExxonMobil. One of the latest acrobatics from the PPP/C Government with this oil contract was presented by us recently: “VP Jagdeo, President Ali at odds over renegotiation of Exxon contract” (KN August 18). President Ali swiftly distanced himself from any talk involving renegotiation, which is strange coming from a national leader.

President Ali said, “I don’t think you are quoting the Vice President correctly because the Vice President would have said that future (Production Sharing Agreements) PSAs would be different from this.” He also noted that this is “completely different” from what the Vice President would have said, and claims that renegotiation is on the agenda of the PPP/C Government are just not so. This gets more curious by the moment, which we will revisit later, but first here is an extract from Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo’s own words at a gathering in Patentia, West Bank Demerara: “on the one hand, you see Rystad Energy and Exxon trying to prove that they are the best thing for Guyana, which is not so. The contract was bad, we have to change it in the future but we are not going to renegotiate now.”

We at this publication are mystified, and troubled, that the two most senior national leaders would go into these verbal contortions so as not to touch this most feared word in Guyana, which is RENEGOTIATION. “Would be different from this” (what currently exists) and “we have to change it in the future” both sound like renegotiation under different covers. These are exercises in semantics, and raise a bundle of probing questions, to which only President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo can provide satisfactory answers. The ongoing problem is that we are almost certain that both of them will not be forthcoming with any answers, since their first priority is to keep up this sham of being for the Guyanese people, while the real story is to conceal how much they are in cahoots with ExxonMobil in the gouging of Guyana.

Why is it that renegotiation of the oil contract creates such shivers running up and down the spines of President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo? What is it that both of them find so fearful about the mere mention of the word ‘renegotiation’? What devilish bargains have they worked out with ExxonMobil that necessitate, indeed command, their frights and frailties where renegotiation is concerned? In what ways have they possibly compromised themselves that they now find themselves beholden to the American oil giant and, therefore, enslaved from having anything to do with renegotiation of the abominable contract, and renegotiate it now? Why, when the opportunities were available with the Payara and Yellowtail Projects were those allowed to go abegging without so much as one new development of substance for the benefit of Guyana? Many questions, but nobody is daring to answer.

Moreover, we find it strange that the President is shying away so much from the word renegotiation. He has been known to be harsh and wrathful and oppressive, when any little citizen gets in his way, or interferes with his manufactured stories of how Guyanese have it with this oil, through its downstream developments. On those occasions, President Ali is a full head of steam, and the anger flares through his nostrils, as he unloads on some hapless Guyanese raising innocent inquiry about their future and the role of this oil contract. What hostile spirit takes over him that he vents blasts of fury at locals? Similarly, what formidable spirit overtakes him that he whimpers pitifully, and scampers away quickly, when the word ‘renegotiation’ is put in the centre of the national discussion table? We hope that he is not afraid of the foreign masters who come here to rule over us again, and dictate to him, as to what he must say, how it must be said, and when to say it, where renegotiation is concerned. Though this could explain much of the mystery, we just hope that it is not so.

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