Dear Editor,
The recent discovery of oil-and-gas rich deposits offshore Guyana has brought a surge of excitement, locally and abroad, about an anticipated windfall from its exploration. As Guyanese, this means hopes for a better future for our country: us and our future generations. These hopes are normal but we must also worry about the disruptions and conflicts it might bring. The continuous quarrel over our territorial borders with one of our neighbours is a very important threat vector that has exponential implications. This among many other factors in the global economy can impact our country’s ambition to use the new resource for growth.
More specifically, this letter would like to focus on territoriality and the responsibility of Guyanese during this process. Fortunately, the country has a very successful partner in ExxonMobil and their affiliates to explore and help manage our oil and gas logistic activities. We have to ensure that their operating environment is conducive to success and this starts with our hospitality and observation of foreigners in our cities and remote areas. Not everyone who seems to be a foreigner may have an association with our new partners and definitely not everyone who purports to be part of their contingent may be true. This is a very important challenge that our society may face and it’s important that those responsible ensure that there are identifiable attributes to differentiate them from others.
Our sense of security, territoriality and our ability to identify appropriately and in a timely manner, the activities of malicious actors in our country is very important. This of course, is a part of the responsibility of the police, army and other stakeholders; but we should not exclude the eyes and ears of the general public. The public has a very important role in the country’s physical and complementary security and with our population distribution; they are also very important to the continuous monitoring activities. The citizenry should be the first obstacle against any type of clandestine activity and potential attack on the oil and gas infrastructure.
The country’s emphasis on preparing and developing physical security controls and our support for the same is unmentionably important to securing our important assets and future.
As every citizen will undoubtedly benefit from this new resource, it’s imperative that we understand the success and challenges this new activity will bring and we begin to see ourselves as part of the total defence in-depth solutions that must be implemented.
Yours faithfully,
Dustin Fraser
