The only life we have

The great Portuguese poet, Fernando Pessoa, wrote, “We, all who live, have/A life that is lived/And another life that is thought/And the only life we have/It’s the one that is divided/In right or wrong.”

Realism accepts things as they are; idealism focuses on a perception of perfection in seeing things as they should be. This is an example of the dualism that Pessoa wrote about, and which characterises so much of human nature and our existence.

Coke and Pepsi, life and death, good and evil, Enterprise and Hertz… We tend to deal in dualities, such as negative and positive, attraction and repulsion, poetry and prose. So it is in politics as well, whether Republican or Democrat, Labour or Conservative, PNC or PPP, with voters, mere days away from having to choose Guyana’s next Government in what is likely our most important elections in 50 years as a Republic.

Ideally, in this lifetime we should have matured beyond the ethnic and polarised politics that have cursed our resources-rich land, managing a united front in heady preparation for the projected oil wealth from over eight billion barrels estimated by international giant, ExxonMobil, following its 16th discovery on the lucrative Stabroek block northeast of the producing Liza field.

Yet, Monday, March 2, 2020 is predicted to be a close fight, once again, between the two old rivals who have dominated our landscape and lives, the Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP), and the People’s National Congress (PNC) rebranded with several smaller groups as the incumbent coalition A Partnership for National Unity (APNU).

In the 2015 elections, the APNU managed to break the PPP’s 23-year-old vice on power, after it fielded a joint electoral list with the then promising, so-called “Third Force,” the Alliance for Change (AFC) managing 33 of the 65 seats in the National Assembly that led to the David A. Granger-Presidency.

But the AFC’s main men, lawyers turned prominent politicians, Raphael Trotman and Khemraj Ramjattan have emerged deeply controversial and unpopular figures, with them needing the PNC more than the PNC needs them. Now the Prime Ministerial candidate on the APNU’s ticket, Ramjattan has been shamelessly dismal as the nation’s National Security Minister. Trotman, the former Natural Resources Minister is at the centre of the storm over an explosive report from international corruption watchdog Global Witness that Guyana ended up with an Exxon oil pact far below global standards, standing to lose up to US$55 Billion over the 40-year period of the licence for the Stabroek Block.

Urging a renegotiation “so that Guyana obtains a fair deal,” Global Witness stated in its report “Signed Away,” released a month before the elections, that “Exxon’s aggressive negotiations with inexperienced officials led to an exploitative deal that deprives Guyana of billions.”  It argued that “the company set out to pressure Guyanese officials to sign a rushed, new contract to renew its oil license – knowing that its existing license, (dating back to 1999) was running out.”

Global Witness hired the respected Berlin-based financial analysis and commercial advice organisation OpenOil to compile the analysis. While the watchdog said it had seen proof that Trotman “visited Exxon’s Texas headquarters during the negotiations on an all-expense-paid lavish trip, flying first class and eating at the company’s exclusive restaurant,” Global Witness conceded it “does not have evidence that Trotman’s Stabroek negotiations were influenced – unwittingly or otherwise – by his expensive Texas trip” or his ties to (lawyer Nigel) Hughes.”

“Trotman may have also suffered from a possible conflict of interest as he has been close political allies with one of Exxon’s Guyanese lawyers, (Hughes)” it noted earlier. Hughes “denied he represented Exxon on the deal, but admitted that his firm has represented Exxon since 2009 and that he has worked for the company on other matters.”

“Guyana should renegotiate (the) Stabroek (block agreement) to get a better deal and the government must investigate those who approved Exxon’s oil licenses,” recommended Senior Campaigner at Global Witness, Jonathan Gant. “Our analysis shows that Exxon would likely pay much more in tax if operating in another country. Yet Exxon aggressively pushed a potentially-conflicted official to sign a rushed contract. Guyana should not lose out on this staggering sum – up to US$55 billion. This is money that can save lives and change futures,” he stressed.

Guyana stands to lose an average of US$1.3 billion per year. “People in Guyana have told us that this is money that should be used to meet critical development needs – building schools, roads, and fixing Guyana’s crumbling sea defenses,” said Gant. “A full 90% of Guyanese people live along the country’s coast, and estimates put the bill of rebuilding Guyana’s sea wall at US$3 billion,” he pointed out.

“The Stabroek deal is not the only questionable license that Exxon obtained. Evidence seen by Global Witness also shows that the two other Guyanese oil licenses – called Kaieteur and Canje – raise red flags for corruption. They were initially awarded to companies with limited experience that flipped shares of their licenses to Exxon before doing any real work.”

The report also hammered the PPP’s former Natural Resources Minister Robert Persaud who issued the licenses just before leaving office in 2015 for showing “an extraordinary degree of ignorance about the ultimate owners of the winning companies.” The companies who initially obtained Kaieteur and Canje have denied wrongdoing, as have Exxon and Persaud, it added, calling for a probe of all officials and companies involved to determine if there were any irregularities in the awarding of these blocks.

“Guyana’s major oil find risks being turned into a curse for the country. While the world seeks to mitigate the effects of the climate crisis – effects that the Guyanese people know so well – the government could use these lost funds from Exxon to build a sustainable economy and infrastructure to protect against the climate emergency,” maintained Gant.

Where does all of this leave voters who are concerned about who is at the financial helm, but wavering between the negative and positive, hope and despair, the fractal and whole? Time will tell soon enough, whether tribalism will triumph, or a new and better Third Force emerges as the pivotal balance of power, with several newcomers in the race, including A New and United Guyana (ANUG), the Liberty and Justice Party (LJP) and The New Movement (TNM). The latter three have joined their lists and will share any seats in a refreshing move, seeking to assure voters that they would never join APNU+AFC or the PPP/C for government positions but will work for unity, regardless of how unrealistic this sounds.

If competition is supposed to make the best even better, then theoretically, eligible Guyanese should have no problem selecting their next Government as there are between 9-11 parties which will be contesting the General and Regional Elections respectively. As Pessoa reminds us, “Put all you are into the smallest thing you do.” This time, let’s really make every little vote count.

ID is reading Gore Vidal, who put it succinctly when he said “It makes no difference who you vote for – the two parties are really one party representing four percent of the people.”