Dear Editor,
When Alistair Routledge stood before the press and dismissed the conversation on windfall taxes with that peculiar blend of power and disdain, it felt like déjà vu from another era. It wasn’t just arrogance — it was the posture of possession.
In his voice echoed an age when Guyana’s resources were extracted under the watchful eye of imperial masters from the verandas of colonialism, when the land yielded plenty yet the people owned nothing. Today, we are told that time is past — yet here stands the Massa reborn, this time cloaked in corporate polish and crude-oil diplomacy.
But what’s more alarming than the arrogance of Empire is the obedience of its overseers. President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo have perfected the art of smiling servitude — offering reassurances to the foreign barons that Guyana is a “secure investment,” that we will “honor contracts,” that they need not worry about demands for fairness. They mistake obedience for stability, forgetting that the people’s patience is not infinite and that our independence was never meant to be merely ornamental.
Let this be plain: we are not beholden to Routledge, nor to any foreign master. We are not dazzled by glass buildings or slick public relations. The citizens of this country have broken free from mental shackles forged in colonial deceit and postcolonial compromise. We are no longer a people waiting for permission to think, to question, or to demand our due.
Our desire is not for extravagance or exuberance — it is for equity. For a just share. For governance that answers to the governed, not to the powerful. The oil beneath our feet belongs to the people above it, and no politician or profit-thirsty corporation has the moral right to barter away our future. So, hear this, Massa and Overseers alike: this sequel played out long ago. We know the script, we recognise the cast, and we reject the ending. The same instruments once used to chain our ancestors — fear, ignorance, dependency — no longer work on a free and awakened people.
Today’s generation was born from a people forged in blood, sweat, tears, resistance, and fortitude. We are the living continuation of those who toiled and fought so this land might be ours. And we intend to proudly defend that legacy — to ensure no foreign overlord or local collaborator ever feels empowered enough to desecrate their memory or erase their history. Our sovereignty was bought with sacrifice, and we will guard it with equal resolve. The People of Guyana stands resolute: no retreat, no surrender. We were not born to serve; we were born to stand. And if need be, we will remind every would-be Massa that this land, its wealth, and its destiny belong not to them — but to us, the people of Guyana.
In this sequel, we the people, write the script, are participants in the cast and direct the ending.