President Ali and his tendency to exaggerate

May 12, 2024 Editorial

Kaieteur News – Guyanese have had enough exposure to their Head-of-State, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali to absorb what he says and look the other way. It is apparent that the president is given to superlatives and settles for any place that suits his fancies. Succinctly, President Ali is prone to exaggerate, then pat himself on the back that he has built up the hopes of Guyanese and lead them down a rose-filled path. If only the president and his government would deliver on half of what he tables, Guyanese will be in a much better place.

One of the earlier instances of the president’s practice of overdoing things involved the local public health system. The national leader went on foreign television and glowed brightly about Guyana’s ‘world class healthcare system.’ Ask any poor Guyanese who cannot afford expensive private medical care, and he or she will share a litany of complaints about the gaps in the nation’s public health system. It is about how they are held hostage, and how much they suffer as a result. Crucial medicines may not be available in the government’s pharmacy, key testing machines are out of order, and the difficulties that such place on their pocket and peace of mind. In fairness, close to a billion US dollars have been budgeted by the PPPC Government since its return to office in 2020. But it must be made just as clear that based on the reports of external reviewers and sick Guyanese themselves, what is in place currently cannot be said, by any reasonable standard of accuracy, to be a world class system. There are simply too many deficits that can neither be wished away nor swept under the carpet.

Another example of President Ali’s fondness for overblown salesmanship has to do with transparency in the management of the people’s business. The president promised transparency from the inception and, when questioned, insists that his government has been transparent in its handling of budgets and money and projects. In fact, President Ali dived into the realm of the incredible, when he said that his government has been the most transparent that Guyanese have ever seen or had. Only a born salesman could harbor such a conviction, and then actually articulate it in the public domain. Mining contracts are a secret, audit reports are hidden, and oil project expenses are said not to be the business of Guyanese, the people who own this oil wealth. Efforts by this publication to get the government to release different documents have met with one rejection after another. Worse yet, when our reporters have persisted, known operators of ill-repute in the heart of the PPPC Government have attacked and vilified professionals seeking to do a good job. Notwithstanding this revolting record of open leadership resistance and covert party roguery, the President is not concerned about the spectacle he makes of himself with staunch declarations about how transparent his government has been. We remind him that he had once said that not all things are transparent, since some matters are confidential.

Now, President is at full throttle again, and this time he has selected public servants to deliver what he believes is spellbinding, but is merely mind-bending, so obvious is the now all too familiar exaggeration that he cannot help. In the president’s own words: “You will approach the new era, 2030 and beyond, the best welfare package in this region but we will approach 2030, as the most advanced, educated, and skilled population in this region, and maybe unmatched globally.”

Clearly, President Ali is in his own make-believe world, has outdone himself with the “most advanced…in this region…maybe unmatched globally.” Given the state of Guyana’s educational output, and its horrible treatment of public servants, President Ali comes across as a man who doesn’t care how he looks in his exaggerations. In that same Labor Day address, the president went deeper into his custom-made fairyland when he noted that his government has “made monumental adjustments in the salary of our workers.” Since President Ali equates 6.5% and similar such numbers as “monumental,” we are not convinced that he is for real and nothing but a man of extravagant exaggerations.

Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, Editorial, Guyanese, Head-of-State, National

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President Ali and his tendency to exaggerate

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