Who said Jagdeo had no good bone in his body

Mar 14, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

---

H@rd Truths by GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – I keep telling people that no human being is so far gone that he is past reversing course, or that he or she has no redeeming bone in their body, must be left to self-destruct.  Slowly.  Publicly.  It is usually an exercise in futility.  My biggest failure to convince anyone has to do with a remarkable Guyanese gentleman who goes under the name of Bharrat Jagdeo.  To give himself some extra gloss, he prefers the addition of ‘doctor’ before his illustrious name.  Honorary recognition for a man in search of honor.  It can be an elusive proposition for some.

I go to the pains of treating Jagdeo decently, as though he is the possessor of some intellect, a representor of less rottenness than ascribed to him. There is incurring of disappointment and distress, even the wrath, of some Guyanese.  I shrug, for being a brother’s keeper can be a very costly venture.  Just revisit the fate of a fella named Abel.  Duty, standard, demands steadfastness.  If better than me came in for their share of blows from their own folks, why should I be spared either cord or cat o’ nine instrument?  A re-migrant may neither be appreciated nor accepted in his old villages, but the course chosen must be traveled, regardless of daggers drawn, spears hurled.

For there was the one that most Guyanese say is incorrigible, Bharrat Jagdeo, slow walking (and backwards) Exxon’s billboard that broadcasts to the world how Guyanese get 52% in total income from their oil.  It’s wrong.  It’s misleading.  For a man who owes so much of his political existence to Exxon, it had to have pierced deeply to abandon a benefactor.  Jagdeo must have shaken in his Gucci shoes, but he managed to get the word out past his tightly drawn lips: Exxon’s billboard that it gat aal ovah de place is wrang.  Wrang.  I hope that the brigade of Guyanese naysayers and nasty minded people get to see the error of their ways about Jagdeo.  Be man enough to swallow their words.  I repeat my personal mantra: no man is such an evildoer that he is irredeemable.  So unloved that love can never be known by him.  So unforgiving in what he has done, that no kindness can ever be extended to him.

To confirm how much Jagdeo has changed, the great strides that Jagdeo has made, he did the unthinkable: he spoke well of a true Guyanese known as Vincent Adams.  Dr. Adams, as a reminder to the sluggish, is a real scientist, a luminous, courageous Guyanese patriot, who gave Exxon fits during his time at the local EPA.  As a quick aside, it was not the first time that American oil companies crossed swords with Dr. Adams and walked away gashed and bleeding.  Dr. Adams was the man who pointed out that Exxon’s 52% billboard claim for total oil collections for Guyana was not really 52%, but less.  Having pathetically jumped to Exxon’s command, Dr. Jagdeo (not a real one) had thrown out Dr. Adams (the genuine article) out on his head out of the Guyana EPA.  Jagdeo did not harbor any ill-will against Dr. Adams, it was simply that he was too dangerous to have around.  Since Exxon didn’t want him, Jagdeo couldn’t want him.  Criminals wanted by the USA are not extradited from here pursuant to American appeals.  But a man of the quality of Vincent Adams was shown the door and given a one-way ticket to the airport.

Now Jagdeo choked on his words, and inflamed his tonsils, when he was forced to admit that Adams had it right.  All of this goes to show that Bharrat Jagdeo is on the mend.  Indeed, it is likely to be slow going, with frequent falling off the wagon.  But give the brother a break, he is human too, and has a whole slew of ambitions (chestnuts) roasting on a secret fire.  My fellow Guyanese should see the light.  Vince Adams was right, Jagdeo was right to acknowledge (however grudgingly) that Adams was indeed right, and I also was right all along in saying that Jagdeo was going to get things right one of these bright days.  All he needs is a little time.  With him observing his 60^th birthday in fine style recently, give him another 60 years, and he is sure to come up with a second pitch of what is right about this oil.

Other Guyanese of a more vehement nature may insist that he admits how much he has been wrong.  My answer is pure non-Guyanese: why humiliate a leader?  Why kick a man when he is on his way down.  He may put up many a shout, but he is on his way out.  Even his godmothers, his American protectors, are wringing their hands and gnashing their teeth over him (the men are crying in their beer and singing “:O Danny boy….”).  This is what Guyana’s great wealth has come to, and it has taken down Guyana’s greatest son, Bharrat ‘I am always right’ Jagdeo.  What is there not to applaud about Jagdeo, a man learning the hard way about the failure of his farces and feebleness.  His fickleness too.  Wave enough rope in front of him, and he soon confesses all his other wrongs.

(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.)

---

• Bharrat Jagdeo, biggest, doctor, gentleman, GHK Lall

---