H@rd Truths By GHK Lall – Happiest Man In Guyana, Maybe The World

Jul 05, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – If any Guyanese thought that His Excellency, President Irfaan Ali is the happiest man in Guyana, start over.  If any citizen believed that it was former President, now Oil President, Bharrat Jagdeo, wrong again.  The honor, the state, the grandeur of being the happiest man in Guyana is none other than Mr. Alistair Routledge of Exxon; he may even be the happiest man in the world, considering his stature in Guyana when Exxon casts a long, broad shadow across this nation’s landscape, Alistair Routledge is the length and depth and strength of that shadow.  It is more than a shadow; it is a curse.

I urge the natives to observe Mr. Routledge.  He doesn’t speak as much as before; doesn’t dirty his unsullied hands anymore in dealing with unwashed doomsayers, scaremongers, and Exxon bashers.  He gets Guyanese cave dwelling politicians and their supplements to do the dirty jobs of drumming some sense in the Guyanese people heads, and of shutting them up.  When the head banging doesn’t work, then there is no choice but resorting to oppressing the unruly and the uncowed using untried methods.  When the carrot of cash fails to impress, then the big, barbed stick is unsheathed.  Enter the Guyanese extravaganza functioning under the name Live in Guyana.  It is the South American recreation of the Klu Klux Clan.  The masks of social media are their cover, and one under which the PPP Government is only too glad to shelter and hide.

It is all to keep King Alistair happy.  The dukes (sorry, duchesses not allowed into exclusive chambers just yet) in the PPP report to the Exxon monarchy that installed in Guyana.  Then, as if to demonstrate who is boss around here, put the PPP back (installed) in power.  Installed is the ongoing narrative, the quaint, faded, legend of the PNC.  If there is anyone doubting that the dukes in our political leadership class are not beholden to the regal Alistair, just check out the acrobatics of President Ali, and the gymnastics of the Vice President.  Brother B has transformed into one of the biggest fans of transcendental meditation, a living, breathing, waking sleepwalker he has become.  His answers to oil questions (on most issues) are extremely wavy and hazy, with much of what is fuzzy; a leader now more circular than Thales, Archimedes, and Pythagoras put together.

It should be clear why Alistair Routledge is the happiest man in Guyana, with Brother Barry eating out of his hand, jumping to his command.  What about the interest rate Exxon is charging Guyana? Get a life, and get lost!  How about renegotiation of the 2016 Exxon contract?  Exxon gets Jagdeo (and Ali) to sell suckers in Guyana sanctity of contract.  I can see American aristocrat Routledge rubbing his hands in glee: that’s telling them, show them who we put in charge.  The investments are paying off, depositing a high adrenalin rush.

As for His Excellency Ali, he is a bundle of contradictions, a multiplicity of ambiguities.  He says one thing, means something else, which even he may not know anymore.  This has special application to oil stewardship, and Guyanese getting a few pennies more.  We are investor friendly; we honor our promises.  How about what is friendly to the poor Guyanese people, honor oath given to Guyanese to put them first?  From the head of state, there have been repeated flights from reason, easy rejection of reality.  See why I say that Alistair Routledge has reason to be proud; is the happiest man in Guyana, possibly the hemisphere?  When Drs. Jagdeo and Ali are lumped (apologies, blended) together, they are a source of double happiness for Exxon’s Routledge.  There was a Chinese restaurant on Sherriff Street by that name, so the Chinese shouldn’t feel left out, disrespected.

When asked about oil, President Ali took a chapter out of Brother B’s book: he became long-winded, which is a proxy for boring, floating.  Like teacher and godfather, like student.  Now he has decided that loose lips sink ships.  The critical problem is that the President has dug such a hole for himself, that the more he tries to clamber out, the more the walls of his verbal prison collapse.  Under the Ali Presidency, the Jagdeo tyranny, and Routledge’s merry monarchy, Guyana got oil democracy, which is an oxymoron, since the two are incompatible.  Nevertheless, I compare Guyana’s democracy to that of Russia under Gorbachev and Yeltsin: the chain is longer, the food is farther away, but citizens are free to bark loudly.  A killer cost-of-living, declining hopes, anyone?  While Guyanese are going down, Routledge, like the band on the Titanic, plays on.  I would be as happy as a pig in swill too, if I had billions of barrels as ballast, and billions more undeclared until the proper time.

Look, I am not a man to begrudge another his good fortune, the source of his grand delight, his incomparable celestial happiness.  My only objection is that it must not be to the misfortune of the people to whom the wealth belongs.  Strip away, splash away, and enjoy the stay.  But never discount the wrath of hungry, betrayed people. Belated 4th, Majesty.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• citizen, GHK Lall, Guyana, H@rd Truths, world

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