American Republicans and Guyana

May 13, 2021 Editorial

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Kaieteur News – What have American Republican leaders been saying that reminds us right here in this Cooperative Republic of Guyana, as to how things are, and why little of substance is moving in the right direction? A couple of them have been saying a few tiny mouthfuls that cover a large amount of territory and the parallels to our local conditions are nothing less than eerie. It is because those carefully chosen words delivered by Americans to Americans are so loaded with meaning, so pointed as to what is conspicuously missing, and so insistently confirming of the wrong roads chosen, and the wrong steps taken, not only over there, but here in this country.
First, there was Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) a man who laid it all on the line following the Trump-incited Capitol Hill insurrection and invasion. Sen. McConnell, at great political risk (likely personal risk also, given the jangling passions of those hours in early January) stood for his country above that of the delusional dictates of the president from his party. He led from the front and in a needed nonpartisan manner, which is one of the reasons why current President Joseph Biden’s movement into office, though held up unpardonably, finally came to fruition. McConnell led fearlessly then, and he is doing so again and right in the face of President Biden, while choosing some salty political language to register his thoughts, and that of his party, and to drive home the points. The man is no patsy, not anybody’s.
Sen. McConnell has called out America’s new Chief Executive, all of four-months vintage, for pulling a progressive “bait and switch” agenda on the American people. We offer a simplified definition of “bait and switch” which we think our readers will understand. It is a conman’s game, the con games that lowlife sales people pull on the unsuspecting that fall into their grasp. And this is what the caustic senator has laid at the feet of the American president. He has gone too far with one group in America, at the expense of the rest of America at large.
We at this paper think that this is precisely what the Guyana Government and its leader, President Irfaan Ali, have done right here, and in increasing leaps and bounds. The PPP government has thrown all cautions to the winds in its blind following of the selfish visions and demands of the local private sector. That would be the part of the private sector to which it is beholden for financial and spiritual support. The government’s response to the escalating COVID-19 pandemic presence in Guyana has been not in the interests of the people, with their wellbeing uppermost.
And it is the same unacceptable situation, where the PPP government and leader have surrendered all sanity to the Vice President and whatever his secret ambitions are with this country’s natural resources treasures, with oil and gas at the peak of the resource mountains. Some of the inner circle people and their agendas are under consideration, while the rest of Guyana languishes in hope first strong, but now faint from constant erosion. This is what Sen. McConnell made clear in his remarks about President Biden, and the way he does things in America. And this is what we say most unambiguously about President Ali and his government in what is being done with the things that matter to Guyanese.
Things like oil and gas. Things like premium resource management for areas like mining and forestry, and the environment. Things like money management and accounting in the most transparent ways for that money borrowed and how it is spent. These are the very things which His Excellency, President Ali, promised so stirringly during his inaugural address at the National Cultural Center. We believe that that was the beginning of presidential “bait and switch” Guyanese style.
Then, there was Tim Scott (R-S.C) the black Republican Senator chosen by his party to deliver a stinging rebuttal to President Biden’s first joint address to Congress. Sen. Scott scorched President Biden for “empty platitudes” about national unity, and that Democrats “won’t even build bridges to build bridges” and of being false on the need for police reform, since they “seem to want the issue more than they wanted a solution.” Now Senator Scott’s words were aimed at Joe Biden and the way he had led (or not) on the burning issues in America. We take them and now put this before our fellow Guyanese, partisan or neutral, but hopefully all deeply patriotic.
Is this not what President Ali and the PPP have been all about? Has it not been nothing other than “empty platitudes” (on unity); and taking unhelpful stances where either “won’t even build bridges to build bridges” (the gaps between rhetoric and actions)? This is our position as seen, analysed and concluded. We invite the honest thinking and Guyanese of conscience to do the same, and determine for themselves whether they are not of the same mind.

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