Global Witnesses
Kaieteur News – The unbelievable happened earlier this week. Global Witness came out and said it was refocusing his interests, rebalancing his energy, and re-prioritizing the areas that mean more to him. In normal circumstances, that development is unlikely to attract jaw-dropping, or much more than passing attention. But what happened right here in Guyana, and as recently as last year, from the minds and hands of Global Witness activists during Guyana’s turbulent election season was anything but normal. What Witness Global was involved in was astounding, by any standards viewed or any measure used. So for this entity to come out when the dust is settled for it (on its own) with this boring announcement is not only alarming, but also eye-opening and deeply troubling.
What the Global Witness group in the UK did in its report “Signed Away” was to place the explosives in the center of Guyana and in the middle of its divisive election campaign season. Details were given of the lopsided Exxon deal negotiated and concluded by the coalition, calculations of some US $ 55B surrendered by Guyana, and the weakness of leading Guyanese political figures in dealing with Exxon all under the sharpest microscopes. It was timely, and thought relevant. However, when pressed by a number of recognized local operators about the basis of its calculations on surrendered revenues, Global Witness balked and hedged. In fact, it did not come clean with how its numbers arrived, and which has caused some uproar in the political ranks of the opposition.
Before going any further, we in this paper wish to point out something and most unambiguously: we are not revisiting or reliving the last election temples. Instead, we focus on how this respected agency could achieve the equivalent of a bomb in the middle of Guyana’s raw and passionate elections, and now offer this disclaimer of all kinds. Sure, the group on record says it stands by the integrity of the report, but it withdraws it anyway. With so much comfort and confidence in the integrity of his report, there is no reason for Global Witness to step out in January 2021, nearly a year after the fateful date of the March 2 elections, to express its withdrawal of the report. The report either stands or falls on its merits, so there is no need to withdraw. We try hard not to see what happened this way, but what Global Witness did through the “Signed Away” report was almost like the dangerous character crying out fire in the crowded market, just for those who were persecuted and ridiculed to discover that it was all a pretext and a hoax, at their expense.
Clearly this is what the empty coalition and its supporters must be harboring, as they absorb this shock from Global Witness. This being said, because his fierce political opponents had ensured they made hay with the contents of that report to register how much better he could and would do, and how poorly the business negotiated whole oil develop and reach its odorless conclusion. If there is one thing that the opposition coalition now has some justification for being angry and worried about, that this “Signature Away” report with all its damning points is now lamely withdrawn, and under some carefully formulated wording that does not deceive anyone.
For today, Global Witness is about getting back to its core and roots, its raison d’etre, so to speak, in areas such as climate change, abuse of power, corporate capture, and the like. Observers and commentators in this country must be wondering, what was the purpose of the initial and broadleaf insertion (to the detriment of one political side), as in the body’s basic agenda. The opposition itself is bound to lead an abomination of abominations to the way in which outsiders deliberately interfered and interfered with Guyana’s elections for ulterior motives, one of which was to disarm in any way available .
It is disappointing that Global Witness has decided to change horses in the midst of a sudden surge. It leaves many questions unanswered and hangs about what his real role was here, the purpose of that report, as well as on whose behalf he was acting and, therefore, against his interests. Withdrawal of this report is most unexpected, and does not sit well, and this does not matter how much Global Witness says it stands by the integrity of that exciting “Signed Away” report. Something doesn’t add up.