Dear Editor,
WHILE we must certainly applaud Christopher Ram for his willingness to civically engage, I must admit that he is sometimes painfully naive. Stating recently that the new oil find at Ranger-1 is reason to weep, not rejoice, Mr Ram again reiterates the biggest fallacy of the national debate on oil. When will the red herring that Exxon Mobil was given 600 blocks unlawfully cease to cloud any serious discussion about oil?

Mr Ram asserts repeatedly that the laws of Guyana allow for a maximum of 60 blocks to be given to any oil producer, and that Exxon was given ten times the amount allowed for. This is true, but as has been repeatedly stated by both sides of the national assembly, this was done for national security reasons, per the provisions of our laws. We can argue over whether this was the approach that should have been taken in general, but it is meaningless to debate the legality of Exxon’s allocation.

Even further, this continued fallacy undermines Guyana’s national security by continually pressuring our oil production partner. It is no way ambiguous that Exxon is involved to help the nation secure Essequibo from military Venezuelan intervention to steal the hard-earned birth right of the descendants of slaves, indentured laborers and Guyana’s first peoples. Both major parties agree this is why the block allocation takes the form it does and is the sole reason every single Guyanese male has not been conscripted to our military.

Perhaps the reason Mr Ram is so comfortable undermining our national security strategy is because he has reached the age where he can no longer be conscripted. As Guyanese we need to acknowledge that there are real threats and real strategies to counter them in our national planning. Perhaps Mr Ram needs to be reminded that while there are around 3000 Guyanese soldiers, there are over 100,000 active Venezuelan soldiers and 400,000 militiamen.

Regards
Malcolm Marshall