Ali: Exxon contract is bad -Pt I

Ali: Exxon contract is bad -Pt I

OPINION BY:GHK LALL– September 2026

Pres Ali had a moment of insight visit.  The Exxon contract is bad (“Ali again agrees Exxon contract was bad, but still rules out rejigging” -KW, Sept 14-2026).  Instead of half-hearted acknowledgement, the preference is to accept the president’s position as frank if not honest admission.

Not the first time that a PPP champion has come down negatively on Exxon’s tricky piece of paper, that 2016 death sentence delivered on Guyana.  At different times, different PPP heavies have blasted that same Exxon contract as ‘a tragedy’ and a ‘crime’ and much worse, if that could be believed. 

Does leaving a ‘crime’ unresolved makes it less of a crime on the Guyanese people?  Does fearing to touch it, distancing from it, gives it a sheen of righteousness? 

It was the same Pres Ali, who himself made big, bright, speeches of all that he was going to do to every contract.  It certainly had to include the biggest one of them all -Exxon’s contract.  Apparently, he since received a message from god: thou shalt not go near to the Exxon contract, thou shalt not think of doing so.  The power that spoke to Pres Ali is not overhead.  Its thrones are in Spring, Tx and Washington, DC.  Before Senora Delcy Rodriguez was put in handcuffs, Pres Ali and the PPP Govt were put in a straightjacket.  One for each of its Cabinet members and members of parliament.  Never have I seen such a set of god-fearing people in all my encounters.

I think that, in the same manner as Exxon had a readymade (bad) contract to shove in the PNC Govt’s hand, so it also was slick enough to put in Pres Ali’s mouth what gave it a ring of authenticity, the equivalent of a chastity belt: sanctity of contract.  Think of that: a national leader with a PhD has a vocabulary that is limited to three words: sanctity of contract.  Must be an imaginary school.  Suspend that a man who swore an oath (“review and renegotiate”) before a countrywide assembly of people, then flatly disowns it. 

Focus on where that same man, national leader, is.  The Exxon contract is bad for Guyana and Guyanese.  But there he leaves it.

Why is he still there at the helm?  Having failed to lead the nation out of a national tragedy with its biggest inheritance, why is he still hanging around?  He has all but confessed to impotency.  So, if powerless on getting the best (or, at least, more) on Guyana’s biggest bonanza, Pres Ali should be decent enough and  leave.  Having surrendered to fear of ruffling Exxon’s feathers, Pres Ali should possess that modicum of self-respect that leads him to admit publicly that he is not the man for the job, and depart.  The crown jewels are held captive, and Pres Ali ties himself into knots, so that he can claim paralysis. 

In the circumstances, of what use is Pres Ali to this country, and the aspirations of its peoples?  Less than nil, is what I think.  Sanctity of contract is bluff and bull.  The president knows it.  Sanctity of contract is a copout and the cowardly way out, and the ruling party and the president know it.  If the president is not man enough to go toe-to-toe with Exxon for better for Guyana, then he is not the man to be where he is. 

Sanctity of contract has reduced him to a figure of farce: a farce wrapped in the flawed and full of the filthy.

It is a widely held standard that if something isn’t broke, then don’t fix it.  Why tamper with what works?  In contrast, if it is bad, then it’s the first project that’s in need of immediate improvement.  Pres Ali agrees that the Exxon contract is bad. 

Few are the Guyanese (or even those in Exxon), who would disagree with how I trash it, spit on it, and urinate on it.  If this is being done to this disaster of a contract, it shouldn’t require much to appreciate where I stand with those who defend it.