COMMENTARY Faced with inconvenient truths, Opposition naysayers respond with convenient lies

By Dr. Leslie Ramsammy

Everyday in Guyana, people becoming increasingly aware of some inconvenient truths. For the opposition and the naysayers in Guyana, the phenomenal growth taking place in our country, in every region, in every community, in every sector, among all groups of people is an inconvenient truth that is creating a crisis for the opposition.

Instead of being happy for our country, the opposition and naysayers are trying to figure out what they can do to stop growth and progress. Instead of seeing that the phenomenal growth is in the interest of our people, the opposition see it only from the vantage point that continued growth and progress at the present rate might keep them in the opposition for a very lengthy period.

The fact that Guyana’s GDP growth, it economic growth, was 63% in 2022 and far away at the top of the world is an inconvenient truth that irks the opposition and the naysayers, instead of them celebrating Guyana’s success. The inconvenient truth that Guyana has been in this position since 2021 and is projected to continue leading the world in 2023 with a projected GDP growth of almost 25% is an irritant, not any reason for them to celebrate.

Among the inconvenient truth prevailing in Guyana today is that the opposition leader and the leaders in the opposition parties, such as the PNC, the AFC and the WPA, are increasingly being seen by Guyanese, including their staunchest supporters, as clueless, visionless, far below the quality of leadership from President Irfaan Ali, Vice President Bharat Jagdeo and the PPP/C Cabinet Ministers. It is for the opposition an inconvenient truth that their most ardent supporters shake their heads in disgust and pray that leaders in the opposition can somehow find a way to be like the leaders in the PPP. With President Irfaan Ali increasingly being praised as the People’s President, with Vice President Bharat Jagdeo among the most admired politicians in CARICOM, the Commonwealth and globally, with PPP leaders seen among the grassroots and among professionals as a class way above anything the opposition can offer, the opposition and the naysayers are desperate for some effective way to com- bat the inconvenient truth that they will be decimated in any upcoming election, be it local government or general elections. But the fact that no matter what the opposition do, local government elections will be held in 2023 and the general elections will be held in 2025 are inconvenient truths that the opposition and naysayers fear.

In the face of these inconvenient truths, with an empty arsenal of ideas, the opposition has come up with convenient lies, convenient misrepresentation and a convenient array of misinformation. They have become, however, even more desperate because all their convenient obfuscation, all their convenient misrepresentation, convenient misinformation and convenient outright lies have failed to gain any traction among the Guyanese people.

It must be quiet disheartening for the Leader of the Opposition and some of the naysayers, like Glen Lall, who had to sit through and endure the enthusiasm and the excitement of the 2nd Energy and Investment Conference held this past week at the Marriot International Hotel, while a handful of their supporters stood in the sun holding up placards of protest. They must have wished and must have organized for supporters to flock the entrance of the meeting site to protest. The inconvenient truth is that the vast, vast majority of the Guyanese people have had enough of shenanigans of the opposition and their sycophants. The vast majority of the Guyanese people just want to get on with the development agenda that President Ali and the PPP Government have been pursuing.

The praise that President Lula, Prime Minister Rowley of Trinidad and Tobago, Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the former President of Columbia, the continuing enthusiastic support for Prime Minister Motley and other world leaders shower on Guyana and its leaders today is an inconvenient truth. The country that has been the “basket-case” of CARICOM for almost all of CARICOM’s history is today seen as the cornerstone of a CARICOM development trajectory. When PM Gonsalves requested President Ali this week to become an investor and help keep LIAT alive, it was a tangible recognition that Guyana finally is realizing its potential and is becoming CARICOM’s economic giant. Instead of relishing this fact on behalf of the Guyanese people, the opposition and the naysayers only see this as an inconvenient truth that they must counter with some form of convenient misrepresentation. Whether Guyana invests to keep LIAT alive or not will depend on what economic sense it makes. But the inconvenient truth for the opposition and their sycophants is that the request is a vigorous recognition that Guyana today has become an economic tsunami in CARICOM. Instead of putting Guyanese to sit on the bench of undesirables at their airports, CARICOM now wants Guyana to be the leader of the pack.

Aubrey Norton has not yet acknowledged that the one-sided EXXON deal is an albatross the PNC, the AFC and the WPA carry around their necks and that the Guyanese people know that it was them that signed the deal with EXXON. The Guyanese people know that David Granger’s team led by Raphael Trotman who went to Houston in America to finalize the deal were no match for the EXXON team. The Guyanese people, in fact, are quite suspicious as to what took place in Houston. The majority of the Guyanese people question how the Guyanese team could led by Trotman been so stupid to sign off on such a historical one-sided deal that gave all the advantages to EXXON. These are inconvenient truths that make Norton and his present team appear insincere when they now demand that the deal be re-negotiated. They will seem more sincere if they took responsibility for the bad deal. When President Ali very cogently explained the terrible consequences of renegotiation, particularly as EXXON made it clear that it will exercise its legal right to refuse any renegotiation, a right that the PNC team gave them, the Guyanese people see the wisdom of the PPP government. The Guyanese people understand the consequences and recognize the recklessness of what the opposition is demanding. Having already recklessly foisted a one-sided EXXON deal on the Guyanese people, just as they did with the GT&T deal in 1990, they now want to bring Armageddon on the nation by wanting Guyana to arbitrarily and illegally redo the deal. Have we forgotten what the British, American and European governments did to Guyana with the nationalization of sugar and bauxite? Essentially, Norton, the PNC and the naysayers want Guyana to nationalize oil, just as we once did to sugar and bauxite, electricity and telephone, among other things.

The PPP’s approach to the one-sided deal is to ensure our country maximize our benefits. The government has also ensured that future oil concessions follow a model that creates optimal benefit for Guyana. For example, while preserving the 50/50% share of profit oil, in the new agreements for new oil blocks, Guyana is demanding a minimum of 10% royalty, compared to the measly 2% in the EXXON deal that Trotman and the Granger-led APNU/AFC (PNC) government negotiated and left like an albatross around the necks of the Guyanese people.

But renegotiation will stop the production of oil and gas, will jeopardize the investments happening in Guyana, will create a financial crisis for both local and international banks, will make Guyana a pariah state, will stop the advancement of the massive infrastructural development occurring in Guyana, will dampen the growth of the housing sector, education and health. The inconvenient truth that Norton and his hapless group face is that the Guyanese people know the wickedness they are up to and will not tolerate the recklessness.

Not gaining any traction among the Guyanese people, they are seeking help from outside.

Earlier this month a group of charlatans singed a letter to Prime Minister Rowley highlighting that Guyana’s oil and gas industry is a threat to Trinidad and Tobago because of possible oil spill. They ignore that Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela have been producing oil and gas for almost a hundred years and Suriname has been doing so for decades and Guyana never raised the potential threats of an oil spill. In any case, oil spills have not been experienced in our part of the world, to an extent that have caused major damag -

Govt’s policy direction has...

closing its doors on the first day at work to a company now that is moving to the expansion in a third production line”. He said, “That is the result of good Government and good policymaking. That alone would put to rest a lot of the nonsensical, irresponsible narratives that I heard. “

The expansion of the housing sector, the President continued, has created certain pressures; consequently, one of the issues facing exporters is the local price versus the price on the export market. Ali said, “What that means is that we have to up production, we have to find ways in which we expand production, come up with new markets, and that is why [CEO of DuraVilla Homes Guyana Inc] Mr Rafeek [Khan] and his team is doing exceedingly well…”

DEPLOYING GUYANA’S STRENGTHS

Speaking to the future of the sector, the President said Guyana’s market is no longer just for Guyanese but rather has become key in the region and further afield. Ali said, “Let me be very clear; es. But the intention of the letter has nothing to do with these charlatans caring about Trinidad and Tobago and the Trinidadians. The letter is merely an expression of the inconvenient truth that these charlatans have not been able to stop development in Guyana and are now hoping that they can get some help from Prime Minister Rowley to promote their wicked agenda. Just as their reckless agenda has gained no traction among the Guyanese people, their agenda will fall flat among the international community they are trying to recruit.

The truth is as plain as day to see. Guyana is today seen as a tsunami of development because of the vision and competence of President Ali, Vice President Bharat Jagdeo and the PPP Government.

The only weapon that the opposition has to combat the inconvenient truth that President Ali is leading Guyana on a trajectory of massive development is to spread a litany of convenient lies and misrepresentation. It is not working.

← we don’t only have wood, we have the best quality wood in the world. We don’t only have a forest; we have the most sustainably managed forests in the world, and it is time we deploy our strengths to the benefit of the country. And that is why this investment is so important, and that is why I’ve personally spent so much time with Rafeek on this.”

On this note, he expressed gratitude to Barbadian Prime Minister, the Honourable Mia Mottley and St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, the Honourable Ralph Gonsalves and other regional leaders for embracing the DuraVilla’s 1000+ modular homes initiative.

He also acknowledged the high standard and quality of the timber homes, which meet Barbados’s requirements to withstand hurricanes and earthquakes.

A high-level team from Grenada is also in Guyana to engage with the company.

Ali said, “That is no easy accomplishment—and everything is engineered locally. Everything is engineered locally… put your hands to-

From page 14 gether for our local talent…”

He reminded that the PPPC party, in its manifesto, committed to promoting partnerships and catalysing private sector participation in housing. The President said, “This is an example of the Government working with the private sector for a vision beyond Guyana…” The prefabricated housing market in Latin America and the Caribbean, he said, is promising. “There are, therefore, opportunities for Guyana to capitalise on this demand for decent housing. But to do so, Guyana must be able to develop competitive housing solutions, and that is what you’re working on. Competitive quality housing solution. The construction of prefabricated housing is, therefore, an emerging market, one which Guyana can and must tap into, in order to boost local manufacturing, and the spinoff effects are enormous,” Ali stressed.

The President congratulated the company for its accomplishment while he lauded the private sector’s exceptional work over the past few years.