The invisible President

Jun 15, 2023 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Calling President Ali. Calling President Dr. Mohammed Irfaan Ali. What has happened to the President of Guyana, the national head? What has been done to him that he finds sanctuary in silence, in his telling prolonged absence, when there are so many stirring events going on? This cannot be good for Guyanese, not at the present time, nor for the future.

When the issue under review is finance, it is not President Ali, nor is it Minister with Responsibility for Finance in the Office of the President, Guyana scholar, Dr. Ashni Singh, himself another disappearing act. When there are difficulties with the hallowed Fourth Estate, the independent portion of it, the President sees the better choice as taking flight. When the subject at hand is the central, all-important, paramount management of the nation’s enormous oil wealth, President Ali is again either missing in action and neither seen nor heard. This does not augur well for Guyana, at what looks like his involuntary abdication of responsibility, his forced relinquishment of authority. President Ali must resist being reduced to the equivalent of a ceremonial head of state, a leader with a chest of first-class flying miles, and little muscular presence.

Fresh from the polls, came the results of the much-talked about Local Government Elections (LGE), and President Ali is mysteriously out of the picture. The President stands at the head of the governance apparatus in Guyana and it is reasonable to assert that LGE results must have some meaning for him. In some respects, LGE is Guyana’s equivalent of a mid-term assessment, as gleaned from voter reaction to the positives and negatives of his government’s tenure. Though much can be rightly said about the traditional, mostly inflexible, race-based nature of voting patterns in Guyana, LGE results still have linkages to the President and are a measurement of his leadership. For President Ali therefore, to be so conspicuously absent, begs the question about who is really running this country. Worse, if as the talk goes, it is not he himself, to where does that consign him, condemn him to what role? At the very least, it cannot be what is good for Guyana, and its baby democracy.

We have much appreciation for the fact that Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, is also the General Secretary of the PPP. It falls within his purview to be around LGE activities, and LGE results. But it has gotten to the point where the General Secretary has become the results. Most Guyanese should recall that President Ali himself was in the thick of things during the LGE campaigns, but at the climax, when the curtain calls came, he was nowhere to be seen. In identical fashion, other PPPC Government Ministers did much legwork on the East Coast Demerara and elsewhere and they also have been sidelined in this time of self-proclaimed ‘massive victory’ and leaving the Opposition in the dust. Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, was among the most conspicuous for his LGE energies. Yet, as has now become the custom and practice, just about everything tiers up to Vice President and General Secretary Jagdeo. While this may be understood, and excusable, in the instance of ministers and other party members, the same cannot be said when it is the national leader, President Ali that is the one pushed to the margins of quiet and seemingly frail existence. From all appearances, the nation’s Vice President, Bharrat Jagdeo, is now the 1^st citizen and leader of Guyana, for all purposes and intents, considering the range of the duties that he has arrogated onto himself, and the limitless nature of his very obvious power.

We think that President Ali has his place and the prestige of his office, the highest in the land. Though there are significant differences with how he has governed some areas, we still believe that there are times and places, when the President must be present. LGE developments, especially results that have powerful resonance is one such situations. Many Guyanese have been concerned about the PPPC Government’s push for total control. When the sitting President has to take a backseat, then it is not so much about the government’s push anymore, but of one man’s obsession with power.

Anil Nandlall, Attorney General, Dr. Ashni Singh, finance, Guyana scholar, President

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