570 days of secrecy

Dec 14, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Transparency is taking a beating in Guyana. No matter what President Ali says, no matter what the PPPC Government mouthpieces say, transparency is under attack in this country, and has been left ragged. The Food and Agriculture department (FAO) was invited by the government’s Ministry of Agriculture to conduct a limited study of the local fishing sector, and its worrying catch declines. It was a good development, with Guyanese thinking that whatever the relationship, if any, between fish catch declines and ExxonMobil’s offshore oil operations, they would now know from what the FAO reported. Apparently, the PPPC Government and its Ministry of Agriculture have radically different ideas about this alarming fishing issue that impacts many Guyanese in many ways.

The FAO finished its work and handed over its report. It is now 570 days later, and Minister Zulfikar Mustapha has cast the report out of his mind, and buried it somewhere safe from the prying eyes of Guyanese. What is there to hide from Guyanese, especially fisherfolk and their families, and those who make a living supporting them? It is reasonable to conclude that if the Minister (and government) had concluded that the report was favorable, viz., it indicated no connection, no correlation, between declining fish catch and ExxonMobil’s offshore oil operations, then Guyanese would have been allowed to see the FAO’s report from the day that it was issued. There would not have been any of this delay, certainly not for this embarrassment of 550 days wrapped in thick secrecy. If Minister Mustapha were still to insist that this is transparency, then it is nothing but a figment of his overworked imagination. Somebody needs to return to nursery school, and we do not think that it is us.

Almost a year and a half ago, it was Minister Mustafa himself who said the report will be published, “when it is convenient to the government.” When governments get to decide when is convenient, an eternity is normally needed to elapse before such a time arrives. The government is the servant of the people, so it does not have the right to determine on its own when is “convenient.” Convenient was from the time that the FAO handed over the report to Minister Mustafa. Convenient is today, no matter how belated such may be. Convenient is all the time, and not when and what suits the PPPC Government’s manipulations, its endless assortment of tricks.

This is not transparency, for when the FAO’s work and documentation are shrouded in secrecy, then it relays to Guyanese fisherfolk, and the consuming public, that something is wrong. For, once again, it is not unreasonable to believe that the FAO’s report has some findings, and drawn some conclusions, that point to some link between the ongoing declines in fish catch and the oil activities going on offshore. The PPPC Government has one objective only when its leaders make these choices, go down these roads. It is to protect ExxonMobil at all costs, by the employment of any twist and con, so as prevent Guyanese from learning what is really going on, what are the consequences of these accelerated oil activities.

This is how a government obligated to look out for the interests of its people first, turns its back on them, and could possibly be hurting them. For if the PPPC Government were to go the other way, ExxonMobil is likely to stand exposed, and its oil operations called into question. It would not be just as such relate to fish catch declines. The government looks shabby when a mockery is made of transparency. The fishing sector is battered, the consumer is left to deal with supply and quality shortages, and is still forced to manage with higher fish prices. When chronic secrecies become an everyday norm, then the government takes on the appearance of a big, fat worm.

When secrecy infects a government, its sick state is confirmed beyond any doubt. Section after section of the Guyanese population, is feeling its way through increasingly tougher days. And all the democratically elected government could do is wrap itself in an impenetrable blanket of silence and secrecy. Withholding the FAO report speaks about this in very compelling terms.

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Government, Guyana, Minister Zulfikar Mustapha, Ministry of Agriculture, PPPC

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