No laws broken with the oil blocks

Nov 09, 2020 Kaieteur News Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
It would have been better if the Hon. Vice President had left that one out about no laws broken, given the manner of the disposal of the Canje and Kaieteur oil blocks. It would have been the decent thing to do, to refrain from sharing the insulting, by not presenting what reeks of the unacceptable, when judged by any reasonable standard.
No sane person takes his or her dreams and place them in the hands of unknowns; or rents his house to someone without a job, without substance, without so much as any standing anywhere; or his new truck to work, and on which much rests, to someone who has never seen or operated with any kind of motor vehicle.
There are no laws against those, but none of that is ever done. Look closely, and that is exactly what PPP leaders did with our multibillion-barrel oil blocks to people with neither history nor expertise, and not a penny coming in return. Then turn and dismiss some more with the insult of ‘no laws were broken.’ This is what the Vice President in the slick sheen of his unmatchable cleverness would have us believe, through what he defends. American slave owners did that with slavery. The British use similar mental flights to justify profaning and enslaving Africa and India.
This is the higgledy-piggledy, jiggery-pokery gamesmanship delivered and defended by the PPP leadership with Guyana’s oil wealth along with the prospects of Guyanese. Clearly, there is no limit to the asininities that are shared around here, that have taken complete hold of this country, when this warped way of thinking prevails. This is what illuminates the hypocrisy, fallacy, and trickeries of the PPP leadership and to what it is at the heart.
This is what the PNC condones by its own telling ignorance (pretended) and its silence (enlightening). Perhaps, now that the position is that ‘no laws were broken’ it would jump on that ramshackle bandwagons.
What honest leaders and stewards do is place trust and oil assets in the hands of those who have what it takes to make the most out of it for the benefit of all citizens. For citizens, not cronies and comrades and self.
That is not of legality, but deep-seated integrity; and the latter trumps the former. No leader of integrity would hand over rich oil prospects to those, who are ill-equipped to do anything meaningful with those. Or those who must sell or outsource those prospects. If the leader had such objectives, then the straightest, most principled way, would be directly to the Exxon(s) of the oil world.
Not through the circumventions and secret maneuvers that have been revealed. Those oil blocks are national assets, not individual property. Rich prospects are for exploring for maximum benefits to all citizens, not just a handful of insiders. The law may not so provide, but impeccable personal leadership principles do.
Now, using the standards presented by the Hon. Vice President, since no laws were broken, then do we have anything that serves as derivative guiding principles, key nonnegotiable operating minimums?
What are the norms and practices enshrined in the ethical that hold dear the mineral endowments that we have?
That seek to squeeze the best out of them for us? Something is fundamentally wrong and injurious, when any leader could have the brazenness to publicly defend the abominations that were secretly done with the Canje and Kaieteur oil blocks. If the transactions were so legal, then why the secrecy? Why the sleights of hand?
Why the unlit, circuitous roads taken by the PPP leadership and those to whom they gave away the two blocks? The appearance of the activities smell overpoweringly of the corrupt.
Maybe, that is why it took seven years (and the daily exposures of Kaieteur News) for the crookedness involved with our oil to come to light. It took seven long years for PPP leaders to say one word about their skullduggeries. It took them seven longer years to share a few words, and there they are: no laws were broken. Why were they hiding?
How many did they have to consult with to come with this legal 3-card con game involving words? No laws were broken is one manner through which artful men walk between raindrops. Sooner or later, they get wet. Sometimes, we are too smart for our own good.
This is what could lead into locally uncharted territory.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall