Without a doubt, the global respect for Guyana has never been greater. The interest to invest in our country has never been greater than at the present moment. While OIL & GAS have been a boon, much of the respect and the interest to invest have been generated by a foreign policy that excites the world. President Irfaan Ali has pursued a non-aligned foreign policy that is not driven by Cold War ideological warfare. He and his government have been engaging world leaders and countries to become involved in the transformation of a country that was not so long ago a HIPC country, which has now rapidly become a high-income developing country. What was once unrealistic utopian talk about Guyana one day gaining developed country status is now something that could become a reality in our lifetime. Naturally, this blazing pace of transformation has attracted interest from countries and investors.
CARICOM countries want a part of the action. Other Caribbean countries, such as the Dominican Republic, and South American countries like Brazil, also want a part of the action. The President of the Dominican Republic brought a trade mission to Guyana. President Ali took a trade mission on a return visit to the DR. The two presidents signed an MOU to guide future development, including establishing an oil refinery. The DR wants to invest in a DR-owned oil refinery. The two presidents agreed that Guyanese entities, Government and Private Sector, would want to invest with a 49% share. The agreement is clear – a Working Group (WG) will be established to develop the proposal for an oil refinery in “Guyanese territory”. There is no ambiguity in the MOU. It is unequivocal – the proposal is to establish an oil refinery in Guyana with 51% investment from the DR. The Guyanese President made certain that the refinery will be in Guyana, using Guyanese-produced oil, and that the Guyanese Private Sector can participate.
The Vice President, in one of his press conferences, stated that the oil refinery that will be established through the DR Government will be located in Guyana. It will not be a refinery located in the DR and importing Guyanese crude oil. This is consistent with the announcement early last year that multiple oil refineries will be established in Region 6, and several international private ventures have expressed interest. The DR wants to, and on President Ali’s visit to the DR, the two presidents created a mechanism to make the DR-catalyzed refinery in Guyana a reality.
Instead of lauding the development because it creates jobs, makes available cheaper gasoline etc., the PNC have decided to be obstructionists. They have created a diaspora support group Facebook page to spew lies and fabrication in a propaganda offensive. The Facebook page has been posting lies after lies. One of the lies is that the VP has “overturned” the MOU signed by the presidents of Guyana and the DR. Specifically, they stated that the VP said the refinery must be in Guyana, even when President Ali signed an MOU to have the refinery in the DR. This is a blatant lie. It’s a fabrication that they are trying to sell to the diaspora and to Guyanese at home. It is an absolute, reprehensible lie.
The Government of Guyana announced, through President Ali and VP Jagdeo specifically, that Guyana is establishing multiple refineries, starting with at least one refinery in Region 6. Region 6 – East Berbice-Corentyne – is located in Guyana, not in the DR. The MOU states specifically, unequivocally, that the WG will present proposals for “building an oil refinery in Guyanese territory, with a refining capacity of at least 50,000 barrels of crude oil per day”. Where does it say that the two presidents spoke about building the oil refinery in the DR? It is in black and white, no room for misunderstanding. Yet the PNC propaganda machine shamelessly fabricated a story with the sole intention of sowing discord.
The unity in the Cabinet is worrying to the Opposition. More specifically worrying them is the special, positive working relationship between the President, the VP and the Prime Minister. In just over three years of the PPP Government, President Ali and VP Bharrat Jagdeo have worked as a team, working in unison, with no discord in ideas and in action.
The PPP have always been a collective. They debate issues and actions, and once a decision is taken, the PPP executes as a team. When President Ali left Guyana with his team, citizens could have been assured that the Government executives, including the President and the VP, would have discussed and agreed on what the outcome of the DR visit would have been.
It is wicked and mischievous for the PNC propaganda machine to sow discord between the two leading authoritative figures in Government. But the PNC are so clueless that they rely totally on mischief, lies and fabrication as a strategy to gain relevance. They are unable to take on the Government in a fight for ideas. They now have joined a bandwagon to discourage investments in Guyana, to request a renegotiation of the EXXON PSA they signed, and to disown the extension they gave to EXXON before Exxon is obligated to give back 20% of its concessions. Even as they are caught red-handed with lies such as the ones they pushed: that President Ali signed the EXXON extension, when in fact David Granger signed it in July 2020, one month before President Ali was sworn in, they shamelessly persist with the lies.
The people of Guyana see daily that President Ali and VP Jagdeo are working together as an unstoppable force in the transformation of Guyana, literally by the minute. Guyana is blessed to have two visionaries working as one for ONE GUYANA.
