Attacking the US Ambassador and American corporate executives in poor taste

Dear Editor,
Columnist and supposedly God-sent GHK Lall has egregiously breached protocol with his personal attacks on US Ambassador Sarah-Ann Lynch, and Exxon Country Head Alistair Routledge. Referring to Her Excellency, Sarah-Ann Lynch, and Alistair Routledge, Lall barks the following insult – “Their verbal sorceries are seen through, their maternalism and paternalism discerned for the cheapness and insulting nature of both, and the ravages wreaked on a poor, backward nation under democracy and contract sanctity (KN6/26/2023).
Here is the definition of sorcery according to Cambridge Dictionary – “a type of magic in which spirits, especially evil ones, are used to make things happen.” So, what do we have here, other than a privileged Guyanese man of religion who recently claimed that he was doing God’s work, attacking the American Ambassador, and the head of Guyana’s number one source of FDI, in the languages of the evil ones?
Not to leave out his favourite object of daily personal attacks, GHK Lall says the following about Vice President Jagdeo – “He cowers…before geopolitical and geostrategic imperatives, fears the political implications of raising his hand and voice.” What this time we have here is a paper tiger messing around with a lion. It is comical and does not require any substantive response. In what follows; therefore, I ask for the attention of the Guyanese people, not for Paper-Tiger GHK Lall.
Let me address the blatant and callous insult against Ambassador Lynch, whose contribution to Guyana became legendary in real-time. Ambassador, allow me to apologise on behalf of all Guyanese for the boorishness of Mr GHK Lall. We also take this opportunity to thank you for your courageous, determined, and selfless service to this country. Your defence of democracy will never be forgotten, nor will we allow those displaying infantile temper tantrums to impugn your credibility or your record.
As for Mr Alistair Routledge, although we wished that the APNU-AFC had negotiated a better contract for Guyana, we do underline that the principle of the sanctity of the contract is sound, and shall be defended. You know that there is new legislation to govern our natural resources that are now under review. You also know that future PSAs will deliver considerably more benefits to the Guyanese economy, and people. But what is also especially important for you to know is that we will not, I repeat, we will not go back to the days of kicking out foreign investors only to return to them later, bent-doubled, with effusive prayers for forgiveness, and a little philanthropic assistance.
To the Guyanese people who are daily subjected to the insults of development traitors like Melinda Janki and GHK Lall, you should know that last year Exxon Mobil invested $39.2 billion in our oil & gas industry, and in 2021 they pumped in $42.2 billion in our economy. As Mr Routledge stated, and as President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo have underlined, these investments are sourced from equity, not loans.
An article in Kaieteur News on June 26 (2023) made it appear that the US$1.4 billion we received for the Stabroek Block in 2022 is ‘small change’. Yet, readers should know that Jamaica’s total foreign exchange earnings in the same year were US$1.9B. You all know that Jamaica has three times the population of Guyana.
As it stands, President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo always try to explain to the nation why it is important for investors to recover their investments and also make a profit. This is necessary because of the distortions on oil and gas by the likes of KN’s two Lalls, and Melinda Janki.
The APNU, WPA, and AFC are ideologically against profit-making. They believe in the very economic ideology that bankrupted this country more than once. Most in the WPA would not know how to run a business if handed to them for free. The APNU would probably start sharing out a million dollars apiece to man, woman, child, and also every animal before evening earning a penny. (PS – the European Union does subsidise their cows, so there may be a case for that here).
Economic nationalism has many different forms. The hegemonic states cloak their economic self-interest as ‘public goods’, something that Ravi Dev touched on since 1993 in his employment of Gramsci to flesh out the challenges to political, cultural, and economic advancement in Guyana. And yes, we do have a hegemonic world economic order. The fact that the President of France could muster up so many bodies to talk about reforming the global financial/developmental architecture is proof of this Western-centric hegemony. It should be critiqued.
There are also forms of defensive economic nationalism. Here, you have leaders in the Global South who are driven by what I see as ‘pragmatic internationalism.’ In this instance, leaders like India’s Modi, South Africa’s Ramaphosa, Barbados’ Mia Mottley, and our own Mohamed Irfaan Ali, are at the leading edge of constructing new ‘regimes’ of development finance, combined with new norms of global governance. In Guyana we are fortunate to have a transformative President, Dr Irfaan Ali, with an experienced past President and current Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, to walk us through the complicated path before us.

Finally, you have those like Melinda Janki and GHK Lall who are development deniers incubated in pathological nationalism. This sort of nationalism is built around making the advocates celebrities. Some even believe that God sent them. Another one by the name of Tom Sanzillo went so far as to say Guyana does not need roads. This foreigner lives in New York, in that world that Homi Bhabha once described as a world where ‘signs [are] taken for wonders.’ This motley crew owes the Guyanese people an apology for their dottiness.
For starters, I call on GHK Lall to apologise to Her Excellency Sarah-Ann Lynch, Ambassador of the United States to Guyana, for characterising the Ambassador’s work in the language and imagery of sorcery. This masculinist brinkmanship shall not be tolerated. He should also apologise to Mr Routledge for his statements which are unbecoming of a columnist in a national newspaper. The nation awaits.

Sincerely,
Dr Randolph Persaud