Little Guyana could be a big champion

Oct 11, 2022 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Guyana could be looked upon as an inspiration talked about around the world. This small country could take the lead in fighting for more from its oil riches, and when it succeeds in doing so transform into a model for other small, poor, and trampled upon societies everywhere.

Little Guyana could turn the tables on ExxonMobil and partners, and turn into a big champion for other little people all over. Many parts of the world are paying close attention to what goes on with this oil wealth of ours, what we get for it, and how we go about doing so.

Guyana’s 2016 oil contract with ExxonMobil et al is one-sided, lopsided, and wrong-sided. ExxonMobil used circumstances favorable to itself to blindside us. All of this is written in the contract, through its terms and conditions, and every clause that puts handcuffs on us, while freeing the American oil company to run any racket that it can think of, to cheat us and drain our wealth away. Every addition for ExxonMobil is a horrifying subtraction for Guyanese, already yoked to subtraction upon subtraction. These are among the reasons why this criminal contract must be renegotiated now.

We cannot continue with this 2016 contract as it stands, and still maintain our self-respect. The contract is a bludgeon to the head and a knee on the neck, and each day that it exists is an insult to us. ExxonMobil will not give us a penny more, not when the company’s Country Head, Mr. Alistair Routledge, was proud to pour salt into our wounds and state that it ‘the best contract ever for Guyana’ considering its potential revenue stream.

This man Routledge used almost the same words that the slave traders and slave masters uttered centuries ago. It was that slavery was good, for it gave the enslaved civilisation; and that slaves have never been so happy, since they never had it so good.

The slave owners were raping the captive women, selling their young children, and killing their assertive men, but all the while engaging in the humiliating by telling them how well they were doing. In almost identical fashion, there were slaves who nodded their heads, and smiled their servant smiles, as they agreed with their powerful masters. This was what Alistair Routledge did when he looked at that crime-of-the-century contract, his company’s bandit contract, with Guyana, and then had the gall to tell Guyanese that it is the best thing that has ever happened to them. He must have been thrilled to have some Guyanese prostrating themselves in thanksgiving at his feet. Just like others who were fooled did in the days of chains and whips.

The 2016 oil contract in its present state is what chains and whips the people of this country daily. This is the shabby lot of every single Guyanese, including those who drink deeply from ExxonMobil’s poisoned chalice. This contract needs to be torn up and the pieces hurled into the face of the people of ExxonMobil, who mock us and rub our faces into the dust. Best ever contract for Guyana, indeed! In more civilised language, the contract must be renegotiated, and regarding that, there should be no further discussion.

The task is not easy, but one riddled with mysteries and obstacles. We have leaders playing games, and they stand as models of betrayers in that they want nothing to do with renegotiation. No renegotiation is of immense importance to the captains of ExxonMobil, and it has to do with money. Successful renegotiation in Guyana would mean that ExxonMobil would be pressed to do better for others in contractual relationship with it elsewhere, even those with better terms than Guyana. There is more than royalty, better expense management, and more robust protection at stake for ExxonMobil. The floodgates could be opened for other countries to follow the renegotiation path championed by Little Guyana. Renegotiation would not only lift us Guyanese, but stand as precedent, champion, and inspiration for other poor oil producing countries labouring under contract conditions that they hate. Let us push and push for bringing ExxonMobil to the renegotiation table. If the streets must be the launching pad, then let it be.

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