Jagdeo as a leader, a follower, a messenger, a perpetuator

Jun 13, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo should be a leader, the trailblazer.  He is pleased not to be the leader, but the perpetuator of the PNC Exxon contract folly.  Jagdeo, Guyana’s head of state for oil, should be the pacesetter, the policymaker leader, for oil.  He is happiest being the messenger for Exxon, the water-boy for Darren Woods and Alistair Routledge, and with possibly Michael Wirth in the making.  This is what Guyana main oilman thinks is worthy of his lofty leadership position.

When Jagdeo should be the national oil leader, he is a man driven to being the biggest Exxon follower, staunchest defender.  I look at this leader, from Unity-Mahaicony, and I ask pardon if I got the geography wrong. There is no question in this corner that Dr. Jagdeo (he is humored) has what it takes to go after the 2016 Exxon contract.  It is a contract written in the sweat of bigots, the minds of men who used to wear cone hats, cover themselves in white sheets, and roam under the blanket of darkness.  They used to give themselves titles like Grand Wizards and Exalted Cyclops.  If that is not what Guyanese have here, then who?  If not that, then what is it?  I wait for enlightenment from the local cognoscenti, the patriotically sterile.  Look at this vice-president of oil appointed by his own hand, a former head of state, and assess what he has settled for as his priority.

He should be spending his hours expanding the press of his imagination, tirelessly laboring quietly to explore experimentations to upturn that crippling corporate curse.  His mindset, his supreme priority, must be: what must be done to challenge it?  What must I do to negate it clause by deplorable and unacceptable clause?  And his conclusion must be this: whatever is required, it will be done.  From the nuanced to the aggressive, from the bold strokes to the nimble subtleties, it will be done.  His calling and cause, his religion and mission, must be: I Bharrat Jagdeo will get it done, be done with this contract that damns Guyanese to a living hell.  What has he done, made it his duty?

Instead of a leader, he thrills to be a reviler.  Rather than be the national leader for Guyanese oil, he is an attacker of Guyanese who speak about better from this oil.  When he should be the corrector of the Exxon contract, he is its biggest supporter.  This is what the man who has labeled himself the chief policymaker has made as his only policy.  Jagdeo now fancies himself an authority on the terms and conditions of the contract.  What a disbelieving world see him doing is living the most cowardly representation of a national oil leader.  When there is a world of the unknown, the uncharted and untouched, something greater than physical courage is demanded.  For Bharrat Jagdeo and his followers, permit me to introduce what is termed moral courage, spiritual courage, the undistilled courage of true patriots, revolutionary ones.  I recommend that he approach Mr. Routledge for a quick lesson on American history.  Fourth of July is coming up, so it should be timely.  To my brother, this formidable man now fallen into disrepair and discredit, I give this priceless gift.  Genuine leadership is more than about the wiles of the intellect; it is about judgment. That is, searching endlessly for possible ways out of an impasse, and then seizing the moment, seizing any opening detected, no matter how minute.

It is obvious that the head of state for oil spends his week, wastes his week, to compile press materials to denounce well-meaning Guyanese at his Thursday media siestas.  Guyanese seeking a multiple of the pittances currently coming from the Exxon contract. There is not one that goes after the contract (and Jagdeo for his farces and failures) who desire a job, an award, any recognition of any kind.  So, I believe.  Because that is where I am.  Instead of Jagdeo wringing himself into wretchedness by wasting time, manpower and State resources to identify perceived enemies, he should be zealously, unswervingly focused on capsizing that legalized abomination from 2016.  It is this country’s legalized abortion, what kills life in the womb.  If Jagdeo has no qualms about that, there is certainty that the American Caesar in Guyana, Mr. Stonewall Routledge does.  Yeah, Confederate General Stonewall Jackson lives today, and right here.  Of course, he was about his reckless battlefield charges, so that the slaves (who else?) could have it good.  Is this not what Stonewall Routledge has told, and has his Guyanese minions doing to brainwash the natives? I remind both Dr. Jagdeo and Mr. Routledge that it doesn’t call for any personal valor to send others to lead battles best fought by oneself.

There is appreciation that my contract positions do not align with those of President Ali, VP Jagdeo, and Country Head Routledge.  But if I have to suppress my conscience because of such, then I am not fit to be a public voice.  Worse still, I would have surrendered the rights of a free man, and that of a free thinker.  When all is written and said, it is not the rules, nor the policies.  It is of the man.  Leadership is what the man makes of it.  Be assured of my warmest wishes, gentlemen.

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• Both President Irfaan Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, messenger, perpetuator, trailblazer, Vice President

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