Aubrey Norton – grasping for the gist of man, national leader

Mar 23, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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H@rd Truths by GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – I study Guyana’s three most important political leaders.  Two are so far gone that they are predictable; the dark side delighted in, the wrong road selected, reveled in, traveled.  The third leader, I confess, has been a speck of challenge, requires some extra effort.  He is Mr. Aubrey Norton, Leader of the Opposition.  From his words, his postures, his reactions, I compiled this sketch.  Incomplete, it is.  But one sure to embody some of his essences.  Many may disagree, with Mr. Norton being foremost.  But this I owe the Guyanese people first, with Mr. Norton next.

My impression is of a stubborn man, someone who is committed to addressing matters, making moves, according to his own clock.  His is not the soaring fluency of the orator, so he sticks to the basics, content with his mental scripts.  On the issue of the highly hailed national oil patrimony, there are those who believe that the Opposition Leader has been lacking in push and power; unable or willing to pull others along with him.  I am one of those, with faded expectations.  His way chosen has been the slow methodical step, a leader carving out his own narrative in his own style.  I struggle to detect if there is a method to the seeming sluggishness, awkwardness.  There are positive days, then there are other days that leave empty.  Often, the latter commands both clock and calendar.  A good day came early Sunday morning.  Aubrey Norton, Opposition Leader, reached higher, spoke the unmentionable.  Listen to him, read him now.

“Regardless whether it is the company that is keeping the government in the dark or whether the government is keeping the people in the dark, the lack of transparency is totally disrespectful and unacceptable.” Though carefully hedged, “totally disrespectful and unacceptable” came from his lips and are now out in the open.  One does not have to be a linguist or a soothsayer to discern that the Opposition Leader did cast a wide net, and its circle included Exxon.  If the overgrown (and overblown) American oil giant is the entity hiding the new reserve number(s), then Mr. Norton stepped forward to identify it without naming it.  Regardless of whether he has been hearing the tumults and dismay from the local environment, including those who matter the most to him, or that came from deep inside of himself as a matter of conviction, he said it.  I pause and look at him again, this time differently.

Differently, because the three senior most Guyanese political leaders have edged around Exxon, made themselves small before Exxon.  When the hopes of despairing citizens are a matter for which war should have been declared, the three top leaders have drifted, done deep dives, and bailed themselves out of contention, creating the best impression.  My position is simple and sharp, possibly searing too.  If this oil wealth cannot be the best of life for all Guyanese (every single one of them), then let there be the death of it, if not for it.  Mr. Routledge should be listening, is smart enough to do all the absorbing necessary.  Most regrettably (most shamelessly) Mr. Ali and Mr. Jagdeo wrapped themselves in a white towel, raised the white flag.  Without a fight, Ali and Jagdeo surrendered in the most abject, deplorable manner conceivable.  They condemned Guyanese-including the connected that are collecting-to rank captivity, prisoners of a new colonialism, an extended slavery.

As a son of indentured serfs, I am enraged at this 21^st century outrage.  It rubs raw.  As a child of slaves, I thought that Mr. Aubrey Norton would be even more enraged than I am.  He has been diplomatic.  He has felt his way.  Cost-of-living.  Poverty.  The power of the patrimony that could ease the plight of the people.  Cumulatively, he has been too subdued, too circumspect.  This is an hour for the foreign exploiters who call themselves partners to recognize the simmering resentments, feel the heat of our passions.  Incidentally, partners represent an assault on the senses, intellect, capacity for understanding.  I look around and look for that fire on oil that is seen and heard and felt during the passions of national elections.  Goddamn it, Guyanese are fighting for economic freedom, not for giving power to leaders to subjugate us to the slavery of our American partners and our Chinese friends.  Let those same passions and power be brought to bear on the vandalizers of this country’s dignity, the profaners of the true destiny of the Guyanese people.  Guyanese have shown themselves capable of that degree of commitment during elections, why not now when the promise of the people is being drained away and diminished.

Whether Mr. Norton finds this agreeable or otherwise, he is the one that must weigh, does the deciding.  He is too much of a bystander and pedestrian in this time of great demand on Guyanese.  His way has been to accumulate positions.  They are easily forgotten.  He must manifest considerably more potencies, those of which I assess he possesses. President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo have been sleepwalkers with this wealth: hallucinating, trash talking, and showboating.  To his credit, Mr. Norton has neither been an abuser of questioners, nor a reviler of commentators.  Grooming, training, and discipline kick in, and it is pleasing for Guyanese to recognize those when they are manifested.  I do. Mr. Norton, however, has been alternately a slow walker, or a leader glinting with occasional flashes, such as he did with the numbers relative to new discoveries and new reserve barrels.  Exxon has president and vice president in a cage.  Exxon has Guyanese over a barrel.  If there is one peerless duty that Aubrey Norton can give Guyanese as his timeless legacy, it would be to break away from the Ali-Jagdeo mold. I step back and handover to Mr. Aubrey Norton, Leader of the Opposition in Guyana.  The path ahead is for him to choose.  Nice guys almost always finish last.

(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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• Aubrey Norton, GHK Lall, H@rd Truths, Man, national leader

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