H@RD TRUTHS BY GHK LALL – Venezuela, Parliament, Venezuelans, policymaking

Nov 15, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – Venezuela is a threat.  My god! what a threat it is.  And there is Guyana’s former President, the Hon. Dr. Bharat Jagdeo sitting on his hands in the house of the people, parliament.  The people are under the severest of threats, and this was the moment that Dr. Jagdeo chose to zip his lips, without a word escaping.  He had nothing to say about Venezuela in Guyana’s parliament, but did he have a mouthful to speak about citizenship for Venezuelan immigrants, and their right to vote in Guyana’s elections, once eligible.  Given the reach of the Vice President and all the de facto powers attached to him, this is policymaking at its best.  It is always with a mind to distancing from heat, and positioning by a man masterminding his way towards retaining power.  Who would have thought it, but there it is: Venezuela’s spiraling menace, unending silence in parliament, the potential of the Venezuelan voting bloc, and the gracious moving to policymaking, all having a common thread in former president Jagdeo, now with more power than he had in those 12 years.

It would have been inspiring to hear some little words of fraternal support from Dr. Jagdeo.  This physician needs to heal himself; silence could never be an option. Not at this daunting hour.  I expected that a man possessing the VP’s history to seize the microphone and clear the air on that passage to the Atlantic through Guyana for Venezuela.  Policymaking aborted, but it would have helped to learn whether he still held that position, or has reversed himself.  Considering the rare atmosphere of the Monday, November 6^th sitting of parliament, I doubt that anyone from any aisle would have taken Dr. Jagdeo to task on his past sea lane proposal.  It was that kind of national moment.  The floor was there, and the rafters of that majestic house should have been ringing, but sadly he found solace in sitting in silence when Guyana needed him the most.  I should see the cowardly, but I settle for the friendly.  To whom is the question?

The Venezuelans present here under questionable status have much to cheer, thanks to the opening voiced by policymaker Jagdeo.  He who qualifies to vote, should be allowed to vote.  What a can of worms at a time like this, when Venezuelan brethren across the border are breathing fire.  What a predicament for Guyana, when some of those lining up for Guyana style amnesty (compliments of a compassionate, coldly calculating Jagdeo) could be the proverbial scorpion in the bosom.  The compassion could be questioned as to its pretensions or authenticity, but of elections calculations, let there be no doubt.  I should be a visionary and policymaker like this brother.  For here we are working up a sweat to be an immovable object in the face of an almost irresistible neighbouring force, and this former president feeds his lust for power with chatter about voting rights and elections.  Not of Syrians or Haitians, but of Venezuelans.  Ye gods and little fishes!  Is there no end to this kind of local leadership illness?  Is there no time so sacred that this type of leadership addiction can be kept under control?

I think that it is attitudes and approaches of this extraordinary nature that boosted the conclusions of the bigshots at Exxon that Dr. Jagdeo was not the best messenger for their product.  He gets too consumed by his own lusts to abuse and curse political opponents and others held as foes.  He gets too carried away with trying to tell foreign investors, none more than Exxon, what they want to hear.  So, his messages break from the original objectives found pleasing by Exxon, and what results brings shuddering and distancing.  Oil investment is a white collar and lily-white business.  Men in designer suits and Ferragamo shoes speak in hushed tones on how to parcel up captive Third World countries. It is not well that a native should be allowed to muck up the works, like some raging bull with a weakness for green, as in the PNC.  That does not sell well on America’s Wall Street, or England’s Thread needle Street, when portfolio managers, hedge fund managers, and financial analysts congregate.  If they are the same as when I knew them, they had to be asking themselves how safe a bet Guyana is with a character like Jagdeo running amok.  Damage control was called for, as this kind of excess had gone on too long.  Policymaking was the tonic: it is in keeping with the man, his ambitions, and what he desires to perpetuate more than anything in the world.  Policymaking is as bright and as charming a ribbon that could be found to suit officeholder and occasion.

The lesson in all of this that this former president has dug so many holes for himself that yard space has become a problem.  Creating a channel to the Atlantic for Venezuela, voting by Venezuelans in upcoming elections, turning Guyana’s parliament into a monastery (a hall of silence), and now this Exxon shove into policymaking.  Where I come from has this saying: is this chap going to cause us any trouble?  Because if he is, then get him out of the way, don’t have him facing the public, and speaking about our business.  In sum, Bharat Jagdeo became a victim of his own success aka intimate closeness to Exxon.

(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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