The Guyana-China card - Part 1

Sep 25, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

(Kaieteur News) – If President Irfaan Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo are truly serious about contract renegotiations, they have an ace. It’s Guyana’s China card. China wants something. Exxon (America) wants something. Guyana wants something. I repeat if the Ali-Jagdeo led PPP Govt is really committed to exploring every avenue to get Exxon to the renegotiation table, the China card waits. To be used skillfully. It hinges on one flagpole. Pres Ali and VP Jagdeo are dedicated heart and soul to doing whatever is required to bring Exxon around to more for Guyana.

There’s a question in two parts. Is Pres Ali, VP Jagdeo, all about doing better for this country, or doing what’s best for the People’s Progressive Party? Doing what’s best for the PPP means doing absolutely nothing that worries Exxon. Guyanese should see through this farce about ‘sanctity of contract.’ It’s supposed to be the perfect shield for the PPP of Ali and Jagdeo. Hold sanctity of contract aloft (like a formidable, impenetrable shield) and the battle is over. But the contract itself has that soft spot: once one of the parties wants to talk, the other must meet and listen. The negative is that Drs. Ali and Jagdeo are so mortally fearful that they distance from that contract opening. The casualties could be too costly. The first would be the PPP. And, by tarnation, that will not be risked, not even whispered.