Renegotiation-speaking only for me

Feb 05, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths…

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News- When renegotiation of the Exxon oil contract is involved, I can only speak as this matter is seen through the eyes of my mind.

There is no intention to sway or steer, to infringe and influence, the thinking and position of any Guyanese. Though all 750,000 (or 812,000) may adopt a radically different position, I just must be me.  Renegotiation is where I stand, so help me God.  It was Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, who said that all societies hinge, progress, on the death of men.  There must be willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice for one’s beliefs.

President Ali should be standing tall and firm for renegotiation of the Exxon contract.  He has wilted.  Even before there is a flicker, with not so much as a flame visible.  Vice President Jagdeo should speak for renegotiation.  The former head of state loses his head, his moorings, and lashes out at those who remind him of what he once stood for, but now abandons.  Captain General Nandlall has been in the forefront of fighting for Exxon against anything that threatens its interests.  When Guyanese interests are at stake, he disappears to the rear.  If the injustice of the Exxon contract is now an inseparable but acceptable segment of Guyana’s oil wealth, then the preference is to stand outside the company of Guyanese who are of that mental cast.

For what is a man if he doesn’t have the personal integrity to stand against an injustice so odious that it spells nothing but what is disastrous for the peoples of this country?  What kind of existence does he condemn himself to, when he doesn’t care?  A cricket bat with an American accent isn’t the sweetness of the willow.  It is slash of the whip used artfully to make Guyanese happy with baubles and trinkets, while the fatted calf is sneaked away a million moos (barrels) day after depleting and enriching day.  The oil does not replenish itself; the oil consortium prospers from the patrimony of the Guyanese people.  Guyanese still have their cricket bats and cricket hats.  Thus, renegotiation is bartered away; the paucity of consideration in what Exxon insists is a fair exchange between partners.  Mr. Alistair Routledge knows what he can do with his trifles.  He has lots of takers.

Intuition and instincts, that sixth sense, tell me that President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo are more doggedly against renegotiation of the Exxon contract than Exxon itself is.  Currying favour is taken into new territory; its spices grow more compelling, its aroma more irresistible to those so cravenly committed to Exxon’s cause.  Exxon is in the business of making profits for its people.  What are Guyana’s leaders in the business of, if not prostration before Exxon and surrendering of the Guyanese people patrimony.  I do not see sanctity.  I see subversion.  I see political saboteurs undermining the prosperity and destiny of this country.

Exxon’s Woods and his corporate partner Hess have been proud to acclaim Guyana’s oil as their crown jewel, this world class oil patch in the middle of the ocean.  Chevron’s Wirth has just cleared another hurdle, should be set to join the enchanted corporate chorus.  Never has been such a gem, such a crown jewel, been obtained so cheaply, so easily wrested from the grasp of those chosen by the people to stand at the bridge and hold the tide for them.  The tragedy for the Guyanese people is when their own turn traitor, betray them for a bag and some office space on the higher floors.  The Exxon contract consigns Guyanese to the cargo holds of slavery, and there are Guyanese leaders only too glad to endorse that slavery.  Sanctity.  Men or masters of verbal masquerades, that is the question which should be on the lips of every citizen?

When an oil contract is the epitome of injustice, how can I stand for it, and still declare that I am about integrity?  How can any Guyanese, be he or she leader or follower?  Love of country, I accept, is now an ancient concept that has no relevance, no psychic command, for many.  But at what price: a jill, a bit and bit n’ half?  Or, for more modern acquaintanceship, a nickel and a dime?  Man! Guyanese can’t be selling themselves this cheaply.  My conclusion is that after a lifetime of selling oneself cheaply, then that is all that is known, what is liked.  The CIA country profile of Guyana should be rich with such evaluations, conclusions.

To say renegotiate the Exxon contract is to earn one the label of enemy in this country.  Oil has done that before, and everywhere that it has been found.  I remind my fellow Guyanese of what was done in Africa and India, to the Aztecs and Incas, and to the Cherokees and Comanches.  First, they took the land. Then they took the rich oxygen out of the lifeblood of those who owned that land. It was gold.  Now it’s oil.  And always there were those who were proud to be by the side of the predators and plunderers.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

(Renegotiation-speaking only for me)

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• Exxon oil contract, personal integrity, position of any Guyanese, renegotiation

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