Suspected gold smuggling – a word of advice for the VP

Jun 02, 2021 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

Something came to my attention on this suspected serious gold smuggling issue, which prompts me to do a rare thing: I offer advice to the Hon. Vice President. Though there is the high probability that such counsel would not be well received from the likes of me, I still owe a duty to this country.
It came to me that the Vice President got on his high horse (as Guyanese would say) and went on at a rate, rather publicly. It was shared that he said something along these lines: the Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) can’t tell we what to do; must not decide for and dictate to us. I think I hear that we are a sovereign nation, and that we will not be pushed around. I like that, and agree, but with these pivotal appreciations attached, and with which the Vice President should be most familiar.
First, Guyanese are not their own masters. Guyanese, meaning, the PPP, saw to that during the last elections, when its leaders crassly and insistently, were totally against buying local. That is, having conversation with the dreaded and dreadful PNC. The PPP, with the VP firmly in control, charged ahead and imported, sampled and settled for foreign fare. It was variably called elections help, free and fair elections, and democracy. My position and all those are known, and will not be repeated today. But I will say this: when the PPP and the VP saw foreign products, foreign minds and hands, and foreign strengths and promises, as the only saving graces, then both party and leader sold themselves – and this country- down the drain. They owe, so they must pay. They are beholden; thus, they must bow down cravenly. The wind was sown; now the whirlwind is to be reaped and it is furious.
Yet today, the VP rails up about RCM, whatever his underlying motives (the real ones), and he is right, but only as far as it goes; or as far as Guyanese can trust him and throw him. Because this is bigger than RCM, notwithstanding the renowned Crown Corporation, that it is. This is about ABC&E. This is about the Faustian bargains crafted by the PPP and VP to hold the reins of power, by any means. There is the price for foreign benevolence, such foreign power backing, and I am surprised that the VP, in his haste to be protective, let haughtiness overtakes him, when so much more is at stake, than the records and reputations of others. Clearly, the Vice President is operating more from instinct, than with the vaunted intuition slavishly ascribed to him; in so doing, he plays with unmanageable fires, which bigger and better men than his lordship toyed with, and got cremated.
For the doubtful Guyanese in the midst, and the Vice President himself, I have only eight words of caution: remember Forbes Burnham, and what happened to him. He was championed; he played games; and he lost his sweetheart status. The PPP and VP should remember and behave accordingly. Cut out this nonsense, stop engaging in these double-crosses, and running interference for suspect citizens. It could come back to haunt, as in out on fanny in a jiffy. There must be remembering protections offered, and American surgical removals from Suriname and Trinidad. Remember and learn. Like I say, this is bigger than RCM, bigger than smuggled gold, bigger than all Guyana. For the Americans, this is all of that and more. This is about sanctions busting and its consequences; it is about a certain kind of financing and the underlying dangers posed; it is about harbouring violators, though they helped enormously last year, who are on disturbing international radars.
Thus, Americans watch closely and build their files. Historically, they haven’t worked well with leaders manifesting maverick tendencies. They can turn on a dime, as they have shown before. The Vice President is wiser than this; he has to get hold of himself, and understand who the piper is, and who the player is. He must stop playing the fool, and stop playing to his gallery.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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