Dear Editor,

MY attention was drawn to a column titled “Mark’s Take,” published in the Opposition-aligned “Village Voice,” an online media entity.
The author dedicated 99 per cent of the column towards an ugly, disdainful, personalised attack against the Vice-President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, which I wish not to repeat here.
However, I would stop short to point out the irony, that the author himself is not the best looking person, yet he is insatiably obsessed with the Vice President’s physical structure.
That said, let me now address the one per cent substance the author attempted to address. The author argued that the Vice President is clueless about oil and gas, specifically, he is clueless about ring-fencing.

Again, may I stop short to remind the author that the Petroleum Agreement (2016) that omits ring-fencing was brokered by the APNU+AFC government, to which both he and the media entity belong.

The incumbent government has clearly articulated its position in relation to not renegotiating the 2016 Agreement, on numerous occasions. This author has also written extensively on a variety of other considerations as to why the 2016 Agreement should not be renegotiated, the ramifications thereof, among other things.
With respect to ring-fencing, I have also dealt with this in a manner that no other commentator or analyst sought to do―that is, to demonstrate the pros and cons, and how the lack of ring-fencing would aid in the substantial scaling up of production as quickly as possible.

I rather suspect that the opposition’s apologists are also worried that the government, led by President Ali; Prime Minister and Vice President Jagdeo are making significant, positive contributions in Afro-Guyanese communities, to the extent that they are all well received.
This seems to be bothering the apologists.

Yours respectfully,
Joel Bhagwandin