Hard truths…Poor Vickram Bharrat

Nov 06, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – The Big Boss Man, Dr. Bharat Jagdeo, made his story clear: he is now into policymaking, which will occupy his time. This means that majors and captains are going to have to step in the breach, and take matters from there about the routines of the day relative to the oil and gas sector, and nuisances such as audits of what Exxon is doing or delivering.

In normal circumstances, and when dealing with ordinary people, that would be that, with no further questions asked, and all returning to their routines. But Guyana is not a normal place, and Vice President Jagdeo is not an ordinary character. In fact, he is an extraordinary character straight out of Shelley or Bram Stoker, a man Robert Louis Stevenson would have conjured in one of his clearheaded moments.

For when Dr. Jagdeo says he is stepping back that means he is stepping on someone. I look around at the two men identified to step up in the VP’s place, and by process of elimination see the Hon Minister of Natural Resources, Vickram Bharrat, as the last man standing.

To this patient, long-suffering, minister of government, goes the honour of carrying the baton, and wearing the hero’s helmet. Should matters take a wrong turn or go downhill, as I would hope against hope does not happen, then some new dunce cap has already been fitted with his name on it. Guess who did the customizing?
For when VP Jagdeo says he is stepping away, all that means is that he will be operating even more controllingly from behind the scenes. Look, since nobody wants to say it, then that heavy duty falls on me: Bharat Jagdeo is not the man to take a backseat.

Not on the biggest development in Guyana. Not with the biggest thing in the world. Not when he is the master of the local political stage. Why would a man like Dr. Jagdeo willingly consent to be the phantom of the opera (his own one), when he could be the powerful but invisible mover and shaker from behind the curtain?

In this way, Minister Bharrat gets to take all the blows and blame, while Jagdeo gets to ride into town on his white horse and white cowboy hat to the rescue, like Alan Ladd did in Shane. In the event that any Guyanese wants to know, the cowboy hat is a gift from Exxon’s people in Texas. The cows are on the way on the next American Airlines flight.

Poor Vickram Bharrat, political life has dealt him a weak hand. He is a minister, but he has no church, no pulpit, not even a few people who believe in him. In fact, the hymnbook from which he has to sing he got from arranger, conductor, and choirmaster Bharat Jagdeo. Sure, the bandmaster is not Ravi Shankar nor OP Nayyar, but the minister will have to learn to make do. He is the natural resources man, so he now has a chance to manifest how resourceful he can be.

Meanwhile, the other figure of note in the Vice President’s creole cook-up is none other than Mr. Godfrey Statia, Commissioner General of the moneymaking Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA). I am glad that the man from Central High has now been hauled to center stage and raised on a high pedestal. My man Godfrey is going places in the local hierarchy. Already he has proven that he is a Thin Man in that he saw through the Vice President’s version of Shakespeare, and decided that this stepping away from the limelight was Much Ado about Nothing.

For sure, CG Statia is no poke, and he neatly sidestepped that Trojan Horse that the Vice President rolled all the way from the Office of the VP to the GRA HQ on Camp Street. Commissioner Statia is reported to have said that he will not Meet the Press (this is not America), he will send a memo via cyber delivery, for this is backwater and blackwater Guyana.

I had taken it upon myself to warn the Hon. VP repeatedly to cut the gimmicks and antics, but to no avail. The short form is that he has been so long at his sneaky games that most Guyanese now see through his games, including this one about concentrating on policy. He is like the boy who hollered about wolves once too often, so now nobody believes him. That is, except for me when there is some rare cosmic alignment. It is what the economist in Dr. Jagdeo should recognize and should bring a shiver to the shaky timbers in his already tormented soul: it is called the law of diminishing returns. The Germans found that out in 1945, but by then it was too late.

So, now it is time for the Vickram Bharrat Show. I will guarantee my fellow Guyanese one thing from now: it is not going to be Showtime, a la the Los Angeles Lakers. The poor minister -he has just been set up to be a sucker by a longstanding master with one of his patented tales from the crypt.

(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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• GHK Lall, hard truths, Vickram Bharrat

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