Dear Editor,
THE opposition and its backers, having failed to ignite the corruption mantra have now embarked on a new obsession and this time it is called ‘Referendum mania.’
It all began when Mr Christopher Ram, a Chartered Accountant, published a survey in which he concluded that 94 per cent of Guyanese wants a renegotiation of the 2016 Production Sharing Agreement (PSA) after just interviewing a paltry 135 respondents who are supposedly a representative sample of the population.

This call for a referendum was then amplified by the WPA and the AFC. It is ironic that the APNU and the AFC negotiated and accepted that PSA in 2016, and are now using ‘renegotiation’ as a weapon against the PPP/C government.
It must be noted that this ‘survey’ came about a month after the PNCR/APNU unveiled a plan to ask ExxonMobil to make changes to the 2016 PSA after embarking on a ‘top-to-bottom’ review of the same (Mr Norton and Mr Hughes guilefully avoided the term ‘renegotiation’ — one spoke about a ‘review’ and the next about ‘plan’ only Mr Ramjattan, the former AFC leader, had called for a ‘renegotiation’).

Therefore, the APNU and the AFC are now accepting the fact that this review was not done when that PSA was signed, which is untrue.
They deliberately placed the country in an untenable and indefensible situation as can be discerned in Article 32.1 and 32.2, and Mr Norton, Mr Hughes and Mr Ramjattan are fully cognisant of the sanctity of contract, so this entire ‘renegotiation’ scenario is just a political ploy to make the PPP/C look bad and uncaring in the eyes of the Guyanese people.

Of all people Mr Christopher Ram as a reputable Chartered Accountant and Attorney-at-Law should not only conduct such a survey, but should educate the masses with regard to the dire truth about such renegotiation, so too should Mr Glenn Lall of Kaieteur News. Let’s look at some of these disastrous consequences outlined below.
It is interesting to note that the coalition accepted the Stability Clause in Article 32.1 which states, ‘Except as may be expressly provided herein, the government shall not amend, modify, rescind, terminate, declare invalid or unenforceable, require renovation of, compel replacement or substitution, or otherwise seek to avoid, alter, or limit this agreement without the prior written consent for [sic] the contractor.’

This was again recapitulated in Article 31.2 (Miscellaneous) of the agreement, which provides that amendments to the contract can only be done with the contractor’s consent.
Why ask this government to renegotiate when the coalition did the contractual agreement? How can Mr Trotman deceive Guyanese by saying that he can assist in ‘renegotiation’? Is he now doing a Rip Van Winkle?
The Guyanese people should understand that forcing ExxonMobil to renegotiate could only have dire consequences for the country. Exxon’s position on renegotiation was made quite clear on several occasions-there will be no renegotiation.
The PPP/C never deceives the people and both the President, Dr Irfaan Ali and the Vice President, Dr Jagdeo made it clear that even though the PSA is lopsided, the PSA itself makes renegotiation impossible–the sanctity of contract is inviolable.
They additionally made it clear that all future contracts will rectify the defects of the 2016 PSA and these were implemented.

There are heavy costs (estimated at US$55 billion) to bear should ExxonMobil be forced to halt its operations, a cost which this country can ill-afford. In addition, the current socio-economic trajectory will take a downturn for the worst, since both capital and revenue expenditures will be severely affected.
Our annual budget will once again be hovering around $300 billion — this means more taxes, lower wages and salaries, little or no major infrastructural works, stymieing the growth of all the sectors, increasing cost of living and erosion of the standard of living, no free university, no new schools, no new hospitals and the list is unending.

Killing the goose that lays the golden eggs has its horrible repercussions. Moreover, chasing away Exxon will chase away all future investors from Guyana and this is what the opposition wants, they do not mind going back to the dark days of PNC dictatorship rule.
The PNC and the AFC are more interested in power rather that socio-economic development, they manifested this repeatedly, but they should openly state their position on the renegotiation and do not seek to confuse and deceive Guyanese.
Yours sincerely,
Haseef Yusuf