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% of the column towards an ugly, disdainful personalized attack against the Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, the contents of which, I wish not to repeat here.
That said, let me now address the 1% of substance the author outlined in his letter. 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 provisions, was brokered by the APNU+AFC Government.
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 Irfaan Ali is 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
