ONE of the persons against continuation of the fossil fuel industry in Guyana is a woman named Melinda Janki, who is given colossal space in the two anti-government newspapers, the same of which two competent analysts, Joel Bhagwandin and Professor Randolph Persaud are hardly accommodated.

Why is this so? The question is simple for a school boy to answer. The two newspapers are afraid of the pen of Bhagwandin and Persaud because the gentlemen confronts the superficial adumbrations about the oil industry.
This is the Achilles’ heel of the two newspapers and the usual suspects who want an end to oil production. You see the anti-oil conspiracy is the only game in town for those who want to see the removal of the PPP government.

There aren’t any other grievances that they feel they can milk to undermine the government. They believe the oil industry offers them the perfect avenue to hunt down the government. But there is a problem for the anti-oil conspiracy.
They face daily refutation of their propaganda from learned minds like Bhagwandin and Persaud. The anti-oil propaganda falls flat on its face because Bhagwandin and Persaud have marshalled an ocean of facts to counter the anti-oil lobby. So, Kaieteur News denies publication of the letters of Bhagwandin and Stabroek News does the same to Persaud.

Let’s return to Janki. She has been given space by the two anti-government newspapers last week to make two points. One is that the contract between Exxon and the Guyana government can be renegotiated. Let’s quote her: “Any law student knows the parties to a contract can always agree to change it.”

The other point is that she argues that the Guyanese people do not trust the government to be firm with Exxon. If Guyanese who want to see Guyana have a great economy do not reply to these untenable, misleading narratives of Janki and the usual suspects, then propaganda becomes effective. It is for this reason patriotic Guyanese must confront the dangerous thoughts of the anti-oil lobby. This column here is a small contribution to that endeavour.

I will reply now to both statements of Janki. While the law students, Janki referred to, may know about contracts, they and Janki know nothing about realpolitik in international relations.
Janki misinforms people because her argument lacks context and context is one of the foundational sources for acquiring knowledge and understanding how life works. You cannot reduce the agreement between Exxon and Guyana to a normal contract that can always be recalibrated.

Exxon is one of the world’s most powerful transnational companies backed by the most powerful country in the world that will react if it feels one of its important investors is being bullied and the bully is a small, poor developing country that the US knows it can harm through retaliations.

These are complex dimensions of international relations that Janki and the law students may have no training in and may not have even a cursory understanding of.
There is no need to dwell on the flawed analogy between a normal contract and the agreement between Exxon and Guyana, so let’s move to Janki’s second point about the Guyanese people not putting any trust in the government in its relation with Exxon.

Did Janki and the usual suspects do a poll to determine how the Guyanese people view the oil industry and if the Guyanese nation wants the country to stop oil production because of climate change?
There are only two ways to arrive at hard evidence of what a population wants. One is through tight, scientifically shaped polling or surveys or through elections.

If there is a referendum tomorrow in which the nation was asked if to continue with the fossil fuel industry or immediately come out of it, then Janki and the usual suspects would suffer an ignominious defeat.
The reason is because the Guyanese people do not trust the middle class elites, many of whom live abroad comfortably. They simply do not trust or admire or respect them for two reasons.

One is that the Guyanese people know that the world needs oil and the world will buy Guyanese oil, so Guyana can have income that can be used to dilute poverty and make Guyana a better place to live in.
The other reason is that the Guyanese people do not trust personalities like Janki and the other anti-oil lobbyists because they feel that the anti-oil arguments is a political ploy to get at the government.

Finally, after three years of constant anti-PPP insanities from the two anti-government newspapers and the anti-oil lobby, voters expressed their feeling for whom they trust by the results of the results of LGEs 2023. Elections matter, don’t they?