t will be the biggest political blunder if the new PPP government fails to renegotiate all oil contracts now including the ExxonMobil contract. Such a blunder may well lead to its losing office in 2025. The masses are not asses. President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo must speak clearly now to the nation and tell them that the PPP government has firmly and unequivocally decided to renegotiate the Exxon contract, come hell or high water. No hedging, no playing games. Nothing less will do. During the election campaign, the PPP capitalized on the Global Witness (GW) report to say Guyana stands to lose an estimated US$55 billion with the contract, as is. They said that’s why we must vote out the PNC, and we did. This week, the same international organization, Global Witness, has issued a call to the government saying, “Now is the time for President Ali and Vice President (Bharrat) Jagdeo to not only make good on their campaign promises, but to do one better,” said Gant. “Guyana’s oil licenses – including Exxon’s Stabroek – should be renegotiated. Guyanese people deserve a better deal.”
In my view, the renegotiation of the oil contracts would be the “tipping point” for Guyana. It is that one single step that would make the biggest difference and transformation for our Guyanese people forever. The PPP is not responsible for the contract in place now, but it bears full responsibility for what we do going forward. As Mr. Glenn Lall, a true nationalist, and the Kaieteur News has been saying and educating us in their daily exposes, if we don’t change course now, we set a very bad precedent and put ourselves in a locked box forever. This means all our oil deals would be bad ones, and the victims would be the poor, Guyanese working people, who had high hopes and dreams that their lot will improve once Guyana finds oil, and the PPP gets into power.
Dr. Jan Mangal, a good man who should be reemployed by the new Government ASAP, (whose bad habit is to tell the truth to our government) in a recent Globespan event, explained that a “review” is not the same as “renegotiation.” The last government already did a review by the Bayphase company, and now what the Canadian group is doing is a review of the review. That’s a technical process. That is separate from a renegotiation. Regardless of what the review says, the Guyanese people want President Ali to make a firm decision to renegotiate the contract. The pending approval of the Payara oil field project gives us the leverage to do so. The Guyanese people will never forgive this government if it lets us down. They should look at Facebook and see how loyal party people were swift in their condemnations of some recently announced appointments, to get a glimpse of how alert the people are to what they do. The Ramkellawan PPP’s song, “Dem ah watch meh” comes to mind. Many who fought hard against the PNC rigging are watching the PPP’s every move to make sure we are getting change, not exchange.
Mr. President, the people want better education in this COVID era, better health care, better wages and unemployment protections. We want better roads, better bridges and infrastructure, sea defences, better drainages, less destruction from floods. We want reliable 24-hour electricity and pure water. Our list is long. We are tired of being a “shole” country forever. (I am a church person, I can’t use that term President Trump used, so I have coined that term “shole”). Mr. President, we want our ship to come in now. Please address the nation and let us know your government has made a firm, final decision to renegotiate the oil contract. We want the good life now. Be the people’s hero. Demonstrate the political will to right the wrongs with the oil contracts now. To use a slogan from the past, “We can, we must, we will.”
Sincerely,
Dr. Jerry Jailal