The Coalition has been plying a narrative, over the last few years, that we should accept the atrocious oil deal with Exxon because the US would help defend the company and our country against Venezuelan aggression. But it is now hard to contemplate that the coalition believed its own rhetoric. Given its recent defiance of many foreign powers to ensure a free and fair election process, does the Coalition still believe foreign powers would come to its rescue in Guyana’s time of need?
We now have a more immediate threat to worry about and that is the coronavirus. An essential armour against the coronavirus are ventilators. The cost for ventilators runs around US$30,000. We know the Coalition is seeking about US$5 million from the World Bank to fight the coronavirus. If the entire amount were to be used to buy ventilators that would mean, we could only afford 166. For a country of 780,000 citizens that number seems alarmingly inadequate.
Foreign powers who are usually willing to help poor countries for one-off disasters are now occupied with their own local disasters. Countries like the US and Britain are locked in battle to protect their own citizens; hence, it may be months before they can send help to a country like Guyana. On June 1st, 2019, Dr Mangal estimated, in a letter in the press, that Guyana should have received a US$1 billion signing bonus. If we had been proactive about renegotiation, we would not be in this reaction mode begging for US$5 million to fight this virus.
