Dear Editor,

A question that needs to be answered is whether patriotic presidents like Forbes Burnham or Cheddi Jagan or Desmond Hoyte would acquiesce to the demands of a foreign country that imposes sanctions on Guyanese businessmen? Guyanese entrepreneurs have created significant employment for Guyanese, contributed hundreds of billions of GY$ in taxes over the years to the Guyana Revenue Authority and given much financial and material support to the poor. While all this is going on, foreign companies are allowed to exploit billions of US dollars from Guyana’s patrimony. The amount exploited by these foreign entities is a thousand times more than all the alleged losses to the Guyanese exchequer that may have been caused by the combined undeclared income of Guyanese born entrepreneurs. The appalling reluctance of the ExxonMobil led group and the Government of Guyana to release the estimated billions of barrels of Guyana’s oil reserves is a cruel and unusual punishment being meted out to Guyanese industries and citizens.

According to the trusted S&P Global Commodity Insights, the Guyana Basin has 18.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil equivalent (boe) as of May 2024. It is clear that Guyana’s creditworthiness and access to cheap global capital would be greatly enhanced if ExxonMobil and/or GoG were to make formal disclosures of our oil reserves. Failure to disclose current oil reserves is a massive denial of benefit to the Guyanese people, the treasury, and the entire economic ecosystem. Emperor Constantine said, “I would rather die standing than live on my knees.” It is not how long you live that makes a complete life. The virtues you live by determine the fullness and meaning of your contribution to our temporary existence.

Our political leaders should show a little more steel in their backbone and stand up for all Guyanese: the poor, the rich and our working class by defending the rights of Guyanese and the sovereignty of our Guyana. Our politicians should not be ‘political sunshine patriots or cowards’ and not shy away from serving their countrymen. We have a situation in Guyana where a cartel led by ExxonMobil is not paying corporate taxes on billions of US dollars in profits generated in Guyana. This is not called tax evasion because an agreement without precedent or common sense was signed by the Guyanese government that allowed the victim Guyana to pay corporate taxes; which Exxon uses as a credit in the US to reduce taxes they made in jurisdictions outside Guyana. (www.oggn.website/category/contributors/nigel-hinds/)

The absence of a system to monitor the oil production of the Government of Guyana is the double tragedy of the Production Sharing Agreement (PSA). The ExxonMobil group is an example of exploitation on steroids, fueled by unsanctioned, untouchable and uncaring multinational foreign investors who are partners of the PSA with the GoG. Guyanese born entrepreneurs provide employment to tens of thousands of Guyanese and pay taxes as determined by the Guyana Revenue Authority and get no such tax exemption bonanza, let alone a tax credit. Many of them fear that our spineless government will bow down to their overlords and dismiss them in a backhanded manner, once a directive is imposed on our so-called sovereign state.

It is not business as usual in Guyana as our working class and non-working poor are being strangled and suffocated by ExxonMobil who created the ignoble and misleadingly named Production Sharing Agreement (PSA). With each passing day we become more subservient to the western powers because of the unwillingness to improve the living conditions of our people amidst the tsunami of oil money that is exponentially increasing our economic growth while the poverty rate of Guyanese sadly remains above 40%. Almost every media pundit and their shadows attack capitalism by calling it corruption. Corruption and racism are two of the major subsets of capitalism, both of which are indistinguishable from the commercial capitalist system as Dr. Walter Rodney has testified many times in his seminal work, “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.” How do corporations make profits? How do individuals acting as corporations make profits? How do environmentalists and non-governmental organizations who are committed to the green plan get money for themselves and their organizations?

Capitalism is incorrigible and indestructible. It has always been the dominant economic system. It is the foundation of all economic systems. The capitalist system will only alleviate poverty to the extent that political and business leaders are not focused solely on self-service and status-attachment. The state of affairs in this era emphasizes that politicians are the fastest growing wealth group, locally and internationally. While France was basking in the glory and lavish festivities of the 2024 Paris Olympics, at the same time thousands of Palestinians were being massacred in Palestine and global poverty was largely ignored and pushed to the back burner – out of sight; just as the great nation of Russia was denied participation in the 2024 Olympics. Doesn’t the foregoing qualify as so-called corruption? The current global governance and economic system would collapse without corruption capitalism.

Should only the outrageously nominated ministers, their bosses and their minions have Prado-like 4,500 CC vehicles, gardeners, housekeepers, chauffeurs, super salaries, tax holidays and duty free concessions; paid for by the taxpayers? Isn’t this the definition of corruption and lawfare or capitalism? The greatest obstacle in life is waiting for tomorrow; waiting and waiting until the day is lost; procrastination is life’s greatest drawback. Let no day of grace be allowed to the ungrateful traitors!

Seneca.

Honestly,

Nigel Hinds