OPINION: Sanctity of sovereignty transcends sanctity of contract

Last Updated on Wednesday, 13 May 2026, 4:47 by Writer

By GHK Lall

Sanctity of contract has a resonant ring. In isolation. Sanctity of contract placed next to sanctity of sovereignty doesn’t have a leg on which to stand. It pales. It must fade. For what does sanctity of contract do to sanctity of sovereignty, other than transform free men into serfs, slavery’s apprentices? To honor sanctity of contract as Guyana’s supreme deity, help it supersede Guyana’s sovereignty, is to void all of its organs of liberty and self-determination. To degrade parliament, pledge people to the immaterial, the contemptible. It borders dangerously on the treasonous. To surrender without a finger lifted. To sell what’s unsaleable. So, I think. So, I stand.

Why should sanctity of contract reside on the loftiest pedestal? Unapproachable. Unreachable. Inviolable and untouchable. By tainted human minds, shielded from stained human hands. I risk being denounced a heretic: in Guyana, sanctity of contract is greater than God.

In thinking of this, something flickers to life, grabs hold, shakes back and forth. It must be shared. Sanctity of contract has power. But is rendered impotent by sovereignty. Or else, what is Guyana, if not a corporate colony? Some may see a long leap. Check where Guyana is today: Exxon stands like a frightening, domineering stallion over this entire country. A people worked over. A people and all their powers paralyzed. Wealth discovered, yet it doesn’t belong. For all that it’s worth. For all the effort expended to wrest the most out of it (while fair to others). I table another position. Seems that national wealth, national governance, was slipped from the ambitions of Caracas and handed to Texas.

Probing further, what can be holier than sanctity of sovereignty? The immaculacy of national motherhood. For which blood has already been shed, and may have to be, come later days. When sacred sovereignty becomes a subsidiary station, fades into oblivion, before the weight of sanctity of contract, then what? A sacrosanct, nonnegotiable, line is violated. In yielding to the paramountcy of something held more sacred, what have I done?

Men and women have laid down their lives in defense of sanctity of sovereignty. Men have paid bitter prices for despoiling the flag, that fluttering emblem of sovereignty. Men have lost their lives for severing that umbilical bond. Because they betrayed that bond. Because they sold that sacred sovereignty for cheap conveniences, base silver. No rationale, no proposition, no evasion, can take the Humpy Dumpy fallacy of sanctity of contract, and make it ascend above sanctity of sovereignty. For I think, that comes too awfully close to treason’s fires.

Consider this: Guyana battles in an international forum. Guyana’s delegation represented this country splendidly, countering as only the vulnerable can, exuding the confidence of fighting for a righteous cause. I laud, for it is vested in the hallowed nature of sanctity of sovereignty. Why fight one to surrender to another? Guyana wages its battles against a leviathan for consecrated territory. This wealthy patrimony of forests and rivers, mountains and plains, which our forefathers seeded with their sweat, blood. If only to offer tribute to their memories, enduring struggles, sanctity of sovereignty must overpower sanctity of contract. It is incomprehensible that what should be pledged to sanctity of sovereignty is pledged to sanctity of contract. Only to sacred sovereignty must fealty be sworn. Never such homage to sanctity of contract.

Sanctity of sovereignty must never be relinquished. No matter the strength of the powers that are arrayed against, that have the upper hand, that wrap a deathlike grip around Guyana’s neck. No matter the scurvy interests of those who tied this albatross around the heads of those who are so craven that they sell the sacred patrimony for a penny. Then citizens are sold a story written in the cowardly, lacking in mojo and manhood. I say it today, say it forever: sanctity of contract travels alarmingly close to treason in contemplation, in mention, and in production. Thus, I think.