THE anti-oil lobby (AOL) has lost another court case against the oil company in Guyana. To understand why a group of middle-class citizens whose financial/economic lives are trillions of miles way ahead of the average Guyanese calls for deep class analysis, but I think the Freudian methodology offers a more efficacious pathway.
This column is not part of my analysis of the political evolution of the Mulatto/Creole class (MCC). Two parts to complete the repertoire are still outstanding – part 13 and 14. I have completed those assignments and they will be published in days to come. This article here attempts to use Freudian analysis of why this stupendously rich group wants to get rid of Exxon in Guyana.

In fact, they don’t. AOL uses the Exxon investment to mask their Freudian minds, which contains an anthropological hatred for Hindu/Muslim administration of power. A caveat is in order. I believe AOL would not accept a non-PPP government if the ruling party consists of essentially dark-skinned African. What Guyana is witnessing (since 2020) is the expression of class antagonism which, when intertwined with colour, becomes a recipe for political hatred that borders on pure evil.
There is no question in my mind that if politicians from the MCC were in power, Guyana would not have seen AOL. In fact, those that carry an anti-Exxon burden would have sought a close employment relationship with Exxon. The reasons for the dismissal of this week by the Chief Justice (CJ) of another court case brought by the AOL provides the researcher with material to analyse psychological determinants of these middle class elites.

I would advise researchers looking for ways to understand why this cabal wants to harass the oil company to assess the decision of the CJ and the trenchant pronouncements of the CJ. Let’s enumerate them 1) of all the reliefs that the plaintiffs sought, they abandoned a majority of them and, of the remaining reliefs, the plaintiffs produced no evidence. 2) no evidence was presented to the court of the modified environmental permit that the EPA assigned Exxon would cause additional harm to the environment.
3) the court was presented with opinions rather than facts and those viewpoints were irrationally presented. 4) a quantum leap was made without evidence. 5) the writs were filed 8 months after the EPA’s permit was offered to Exxon and had a mere few months to expire. 6) there is nothing in law to stop the EPA from issuing a modified permit to Exxon.
I could go on, but space would not permit it; suffice it to say that the court’s time was wasted and will further be wasted because there are about eight more writs before the courts filed by AOL. What the CJ’s decision reveals is that AOL is not interested in any serious challenge to the fossil fuel industry but is using the industry to fight the government for reasons of class and colour.

Whether there are located in the diaspora or reside in Guyana, the AOL is not going away because they see the oil industry as the only pathway left to confront the ruling PPP. They cannot use the economy, the educational system, the industrial climate, the human rights record of the government to concentrate their energies on.
These are not workable strategies and these forums would not attract foreign sympathies. AOL is smart. It knows that there is a crescendo of international activities about climate protection and it would bring political capital if they piggyback on these global forces. This explains the insane activism against Exxon. But is it all a game, a political gambit to see if foreign governments can support the agenda of AOL. But herein lies a huge contradiction.

AOL has extensive connections with the western embassies in Georgetown but these embassies, while they enjoy their incestuous relations with AOL, the US Embassy will not utter one word to harm Exxon investments for two reasons. One is that in a shifting geopolitical world where Russian and Venezuelan oil has been reduced massively over the years, Guyana is a safe receptacle for oil. Secondly, the role of the US Embassy in Georgetown is to allow for the penetration of American investments in Guyana to prevent Chinese saturation. The US embassy may be a forum for AOL and MCC and even the opposition parties to have tête-à-tête.