New variant of colonialism

http://www.guyanachronicle.com/letters.html

Guyana Chronicle, 22 May 2007

I WISH to respond to the report of May 12 in your newspaper that the
Chief Executive Officer of the Barama Company alleged at a press
conference that I had unleashed unwarranted attacks, propaganda and
lies against his company.

For the record, it is Mr. Lalaram who is engaged in spreading
propaganda when he links me with the businesses of my relations. I am
not connected with Precision Woodworking Limited or Bulkan Timber
Works, either as shareholder or as a salaried worker, nor am I party to
enterprise strategies.

For the record, Mr. Lalaram’s assertion that Precision will have to pay
the comparable international price for locust violates both the letter
and spirit of the company’s 1991 FDI agreement which states in part:

“10. Product Pricing: The parties hereto [that is, the Government of
Guyana and the owners of Barama] shall discuss and agree on the pricing
policy relating to the company’s products which would govern the
disposal of any portion(s) of the company’s products on the local
Guyanese market, taking into consideration the price(s) and quality of
the local Guyanese product(s).”

The Government and people of Guyana should take note that Samling
Global, Barama’s parent company, raised US$269 million in March 2007,
mostly on its claims to 2.1 million hectares (or more than 5 million
acres) of Guyana’s forests. Samling controls more forest lands in
Guyana than it does in Malaysia.

Yet between June 30, 2003 and September 30, 2006, Samling paid US$87.6
million in royalties only to Malaysia. In comparison, in that same time
period, Barama Company paid only a total of US$2.5 million as royalties
and rent to the Government of Guyana and to its landlording forest
concessionaires combined.

In 2004-2005 only, the tax concessions granted by the Guyana Revenue
Authority (as revenue loss?) to Barama Company amounted to US $1.9
million. In other words, Guyana subsidises the Barama Company Limited.

Mr. Lalaram’s announcement of a direct punitive action against
companies to which I am not connected provides further proof of the
blatant violation of his company’s FDI agreement while it continues to
despoil the forests of Guyana for limited national gain.

If this is not a new vicious variant of colonialism, I do not know what
is.

JANETTE BULKAN