Dear Editor,

UNDOUBTEDLY, Glenn Lall and the Kaieteur News is once again hell bent on unleashing its vehement attack on the PPP/C’s government. We have seen this media house leading the corruption mantra which came to a screeching halt from 2015 to 2020, during the tenure of the Coalition Government when all forms of corruption rose to unprecedented heights. This had resulted in an increase in inequality with the gap widening between the ‘have’ and the ‘have-nots’, cronyism, poor or no accountability, gross mismanagement of the economy, blatantly corrupt deals, squandering and widespread stealing of funds, burdensome taxation and rising frustration and hardship among citizens.

Moreover, it was also in 2016 when the Exxon Contract was signed by the Coalition and the Coalition played a three-card trick with the $US18 million signing bonus.

Yet Kaieteur News heard and saw no evil and there was no cross country walk or fasting in front of the President’s office nor any TikToking, no comical radio show and daily articles targeting the Coalition and Exxon.

It would have appeared that these did not happen since it would have not served his mephistophelian agenda at that time. However, the publisher of KNews did a Rip Van Winkle as soon as the PPP/C assumed office in 2020. Suddenly, he became the ‘messiah’ for the poor and downtrodden and the ‘crusader’ against the PPP/C Government and Exxon. He saw ‘corruption’ in every nook and cranny. He saw nothing worthwhile mentioning since the PPP/C Government took office in 2020. Would he have done the same if the Coalition was still in power? Absolutely not!

In addition, I am yet to see a Glenn Lall piece on the several attempts by the Coalition to steal an entire country in plain sight. He was nowhere to be seen ranting and raving on his facetious show. There was no protest walk or hunger strike. The Kaieteur News adopted an independent posture during this infamous period of severe anguish and agony experienced by the Guyanese people.

It is an established fact that Glen Lall and Aubrey Norton’s statements are devoid of facts and logical reasoning but instead packed with emotive utterances. Appealing to emotions and using deliberate and concocted misinformation is deceitful.

For instance, I have heard that Glen Lall misstated that Exxon gets 98 per cent of the oil profit and Guyana gets a mere 2 per cent. I have also heard Norton stating that he will give each household $US5,000. Not having a clue whether the oil revenue Guyana receives will sustain this disbursement. This was skillfully debunked by Dr Jagdeo at his recent press conference who explained that the revenue received so far is below the $US1.7 billion which is required annually to make this disbursement.
Predictably, I have not seen this reported in the KNews. The Vice President went on to explain why the PSA already signed cannot be renegotiated and the fact that all future contracts will resolve the issues of the Stabroek PSAs. Unfortunately, KNews attempted to twist the statements made by the Vice President.

There is no doubt that Guyana must make use of the momentum described by him in order to sustain the level of planned investments since there is indeed a ‘tiny window’ of opportunity and many variables to deal with.

I have read a masterpiece written by Professor Emeritus Compton Bourne captioned, ‘Guyana on the right path to economic transformation’ and I would recommend that Glen Lall and Aubrey Norton do a thorough analysis of this article
(https://www.stabroeknews.com/2023/05/30/features/guyana-on-right-path-to-economic-transformation/).

In the introduction, he summarised the article as follows: ‘Production and marketing of Guyana’s abundant oil and natural gas resources provide unheralded opportunities to substantially raise levels of living for its resident population. Transformation of the economy is a critical requirement for the improvements in levels of living to be sustained for current and future generations. Some fundamentals of economic transformation are a massive investment programme in economic and social infrastructure; economic diversification; capacity expansion, cost efficiency, and reliability in the domestic electricity and energy supply sector; and diffusion of economic opportunities. All things considered Guyana is on the right path to economic transformation.’ The Professor went on to explain in detail how the government is constructing this path to economic prosperity. This will coincide with what Dr Jagdeo explained at his recent press conference.

I encourage all Guyanese to examine deeply Professor Bourne’s article and listen attentively to Dr Jagdeo’s Press Conference on June 1 to expose the lies and emotive trash peddled by the Kaieteur News publisher and Aubrey Norton.

Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf