A new caliber of Guyanese leadership direly needed

Mar 01, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – We need a different kind of Guyanese today.  The six (or eight or nine) peoples of this country need a Guyanese man, or a Guyanese woman, to step out and stand for something that is definitely not present around anymore.  Considering the national oil wealth that swims under the seafloors, there has to be one Guyanese, or a score of them in some new group, who represents what the citizens of Guyana need the most, and desperately so, at this time in the nation’s life.

There has to be one Guyanese, a son or a daughter of this soil, who comes on centerstage in the national spotlight and say in the most ringing tones: ‘I don’t care about being president of Guyana.’  He or she must mean it to their marrow, to the farthest recesses of their mind.

He or she must be able to say with power and a burning spirit: ‘I don’t give a damn about winning a seat or a handful of them, and being in parliament’.  Notwithstanding the possibilities, the material differences that may be in the making, and which could all be for the benefit of the hopefuls of Guyana.  That, too, must also be of what is nothing less than absolute authenticity.

Somehow from some place across the 83,000 square of forests and plains, mountains and valleys, city and countryside of Guyana, there has to be one citizen, or a small band of such brothers and sisters, who are only about and all about Guyanese.  They swear that they do not want to be the flunkey or fool of Exxon, and its posse of powerful corporate chieftains.  They must swear to that strength, and then have the will to live it.  For the overtures and offers will come.  Just take a moment, a long one, and study what Guyanese have for political and civic leaders today.  Many have sold, and the product is themselves.  All that they are capable of giving, and if that means that they have first to trample on, and then steamroller over, 95% of this country’s citizens as part of the bargains, then they will do so, as they are doing just so right now.  Examine how the leaders in the Guyana society of today split words letter by letter and syllable by syllable to evade speaking to the truth of this nation’s wealth, their sickly management of it, and the kind of self-serving relationships that they have solidified with Exxon and others.  Guyanese leaders struggle to fit themselves between the letters of words, and play with phrases, in futile attempts to cover their weaknesses, their tricks.  They fail abjectly.  There are precedents, the global record.  Here is a small, fast-moving snapshot.

All the signs are present, and the record of corporate affairs in China (yes, China) Greece, Iraq, and Nigeria, among other places stand and speak volumes.  The names are iconic: Exxon, Chevron (oil); Kellogg, Brown & Root [a Haliburton subsidiary] (oil services); AstraZeneca and Ely Lilly (drugs); Alcoa (bauxite); Lockheed and McDonnell-Douglas (aircraft).  From America and Europe, the evidence is there, and it is of who was involved, who bribed, who participated in kickbacks.  Or were suspected by the regulators and investigators of being involved in such nefarious and highly secretive activities.  In China, there is a piece of paper that is called fapiao, and it sings a particular symphony when misused to shield expensive wrongdoing.  In Greece, they have a word for it: miza.  It means corruption at rare heights, big-time, official gangsterism.  In Japan, there is what is called the kuromaku, which translates aptly to black curtain, and which meaning should not be lost on Guyanese.  Imagine that US President Bill “Slick Willie” Clinton travelled to Toronto to give a testimonial for a character called Victor Phillip Michael Dahdaleh, while he was under investigation for corruption.  A man who gave millions to Foundations, universities, and cancer research.  This is the face of leadership, criminal operators, middlemen, middle women, other that swindle poor countries, and make the poor people poorer.

Here is a point that should be of interest to honest Guyanese: The World Bank noted some time ago that part of the scheming between foreign companies and local politicians involves huge payments upfront to the latter, and later there is concealment of expenses, where those upfront corporate ‘costs’ are recouped. Has a familiar local ring, does it not?

For all the reasons mentioned, it is why a different kind of leader is so urgently needed here.  One that says, ‘I don’t want any damn money.  I spit on offer and pee on the offeror.’  And, ‘I have no interest in power for power sake, in access, and for influence.’  But what there an abiding interest is in that there will be remorseless and relentless pressure delivered in the faces of local political defenders of foreign corporate plundering and profiteering to the detriment of Guyanese.  Any Guyanese.  One Guyanese.  Part of the package has to be that they can smear and slander.  There is readiness for that, plenty stomach and soulfulness for any such revulsions.  They are anticipated, will be well-received.  And if sacrificial example(s) (killing) is the political solution favored by incumbent political players, then sobe it.  The worst must be expected of politicians, steeled for in stoic readiness.

Look at local political leaders.  They are skipping rope, sparring and displaying fancy footwork, when it comes to this national oil wealth.  It is the wealth of the Guyanese people, and not that of Exxon.  Or PPP plotters.  Or PNC fraudsters.  Goddamn it!  Guyanese have had enough of these failures, these excuses, these conmen and con women.  The present crop of leaders and their subservient relationship to Exxon is Guyana’s Achilles heel. The time has never been riper for a new caliber of Guyanese leadership.

(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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• citizens, Guyanese, Parliament, President, US President Bill “Slick Willie” Clinton

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