The more Bharrat brawls, the more he brutalises himself 

Jun 06, 2024 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – The more that Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo engages in his weekly brawls, the more he brutalises his name, his standing, his existence. I would have to be a dog not to feel pity for this poor fellow, a brother fallen by his own hand. The more he rants and rolls his eyes as if in the throes of an epileptic(fits) attack, the more he savages himself, bringing himself into wider ridicule. A spectacle he has made himself into, a man to be given the longest rope. We all know what many have done when a long rope is given to them.  We should all be familiar with how those that are termed ‘crazies’, lost and out of control street people, are given the biggest space and a most careful eye.  To my utter dismay, this is what brother Jagdeo has done to himself, how deep he has sunk with what he calls press conferences.

What will he come up with next to display his version of political and individual masculinity?  If that is masculinity, then I prefer to be a jumbie.  What will trigger him into a frenzy and send him off the deep end like some demented maniac, a man in the grasp of some powerful spirit, helpless to its whisperings in his ear?  What voices are Bharrat Jagdeo hearing that drives him, in the manner of New York’s Son of Sam, week after week to run on press rampages?  One has to be a heartless barbarian not to feel some degree of sympathy for Jagdeo, given how his every waking hour is wracked by a terrible sickness.  I have been made an object of this helpless man’s wrath, but it would be a failure on my part as a human being, as a believer, not to say a good word for him to the forces upstairs.  It is why I seek to guide him at every opportunity to the straight paths with this oil.  I assure my fellow Guyanese his hate will not be returned with any hate.  In a short time, all that hating leaves everyone twisting in the wind, a victim of their self-destructive follies.

If this is the harrowing price of national oil leadership, the boldest and cleanest oil governance, then I urge Bharrat Jagdeo to let it go.  Give it to President Irfaan Ali, he can’t do worse, though I have my doubts.  Step aside and let Attorney General Anil Nandlall spread his wings, and show all Guyanese, all the world, how smart he is, how much he is capable of, and how different he could be.  For better or worse, and with the hope for a rising, viable opposition, I cast my eyes on Nandlall and implore Jagdeo: remove self out of the oil and governance and policymaking equations. Do not continue for one minute longer with this mockery for weekly press engagements that deteriorate from the first word into rum-shop rowdiness, street corner throwdowns. If Jagdeo were not a former head of state, the Guyana Police Force would be summoned in a hurry, and he would have been hurled headfirst into the Black Maria, now repainted in a more serene blue.  Disturbing the peace.  Creating a riotous condition.  Inciting to hostility (of all kinds, which don’t have enough commissions in Guyana to go through).

One of the qualities that has become conspicuous in the VP’s press dogfights is that he has a glass jaw (not a glass key).  He cannot take a punch.  He is made so fragile by shadows and all types of lurking fears that he imagines a blow on the way, when there is none in the making.  None intended.  None directed at his face.  The question is what has made him so nervous, always on the edge of his seat with this oil patrimony of the people.  Did he dabble in dark deeds?  Did he go into sinister holes, shake hands with dirty people, and make deals that can never see the light, must remain a secret at all costs, and by any means?  Including thrashing about and lashing out at those who torment his existence by asking torrid questions.  Or siccing his war dogs at those found to be obstacles to be flattened.  The next time I direct my attention at the other headman, Mr. Alistair Routledge, I must pick his brain on things like these. I am sure that if I catch him in a rare reflective mood, he may have a few tiny nuggets of truth to share.  Oil companies are not below stooping low and all the way to the bottom to achieve their ends, and Exxon is a leader in this department.

But back to Bharrat, this suffering brother.  I can’t give up on him, for that is not my nature, nor an option.  He is free to rant.  I am here to soothe.  He can revile.  My role is to beautify.  He can toy with truth.  I have a sacred obligation to use truth as a weapon of light and peace.  If truth turns out to be a terror weapon for Vice President and PPP General Secretary Bharrat Jagdeo, then I reassure him that it is only collateral damage.  Get better, Bharrat.  I am praying for you.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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• Bharrat Jagdeo, General Anil Nandlall, Guyana Police Force, PPP General Secretary, press conferences

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