President Ali – help on the way

Jul 02, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – It is my difficult duty to bring His Excellency, President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali back to earth.  He has gotten comfortable, even more than a shade haughty, riding astride Guyanese, as though he is Julius Caesar and some colossus.  Colossi crumble, often in their own lifetimes.  It is a product of their own arrogance, with an assist from their own cavalier putdown of others, and that tone deaf streak that trips their feet.  Stretching to my full height, and with every confidence that right is on my side, a humble word of counsel is placed at the president’s feet.  My counsel is built on a truth held sacred by countless millions down through the years. Here it is, Dr. President, compliments of the English: If a cat could look at a king…

I acknowledge that it is a strange one to put before a president, especially one who now thinks of himself in kinglike proportions.  A young reporter asks a question of an almost as young head of state, and the latter loses his head.  He trips over his feet through verbal excess and lands facedown.  In dog turd, of all offensive things.  How President Ali responded to that question spoke so much about what is rank and offensive anywhere, is indefensible.  It stands at the heights and is impregnable, no matter whatever raucous representations either His Excellency or his platoons of panting sycophants care to submit.  President Ali must find it in himself to humble himself and submit.  Remember: even a cat could look at a king.  Or a self-styled emperor given to preening pomposity.  Or a president made of putty.

Like putty combined with the environment and elements, there is a hard edge to Guyana’s head of state.  Uneasy lies the crown on his head.  Why is that so, Mr. President?  What dark secrets are harboured, must be contained there as a matter of life and death.  Even with lashing out at the tender, vulnerable.  President Ali should know that parents are hauled into ignominy for going overboard with young offspring when they are found unpredictable, unnerving, and uncontrollable.  In the times that we live, spare the rod and spoil the child went out the window from 40 storeys up.  President Ali is guilty of treating himself, after first having spoiled himself.  If a cat could look at king…

After this third rendition, it is time that sublime English saying involving a feline be revealed.  It has its own native wisdom, its unchallengeable standing.  For the edification of Guyana’s bristling, bustling, and brawling man at the helm.  Oh, and also for the peace of mind of Guyanese going about their business in rustic faraway paths, in humble hamlets and chic capitals.   When a cat could look at a king that right is inviolable, and if it clashes with the divine rights of the man who would make himself a king (Irfaan Ali) and actually believes that he is God come down to Guyana (President Ali), then the right of that cat to ask a question takes precedence.  In human terms, and since Excellency loves to serenade the world that Guyana is a democracy [and not a monarchy], a peasant can ask a question of the president, regardless of who the headman is.  A pauper can dare to table a question of a president, no matter how the commander-in-chief may be full of himself.  President Ali may have difficulty with this, but the right to ask questions of an elected Chief Executive is also due to citizens he may consider to be pushovers, parasites, and even punks.  On further consideration, I withdraw punks.  But once an inquiry is raised respectfully, then it is imperative that the national leader responds with identical respect, if not more.  Why more?  Because a president is held to that highest of standards: he governs for the people, at the behest and pleasure of the people.  Notwithstanding how whimsical appearing in the eyes of the president.  Or discomfiting, according to the calculations of that leader.

President Ali may consider his elevation to his high office as ranking him alongside supreme deities.  Such would be the level of the piteous state to which he has condemned himself.  I take the pain of sharing with President Ali that the presidency is not, and should not degrade, to the pugilistic, as beautiful as that sweet science is.  And even that savage sport does have the constraints of its rules.  Self-discipline must rule the day even when goaded into frenzied fury.  I think that President Ali’s recent royal tumble indicated that that vital self-discipline fostered by self-control is the farthest consideration in his runaway mind.  Please, sir, do not let the trappings of office obscure the demands of impeccable oversight.  To the dignity of citizens.  To the dereliction of self-regard.  To the present tranquility and uncontroversial posterity.  If President Ali is consumed by only listening to his own voice, and probably other ones crawling about in noisy competition in his overcrowded head, then the help that I extend to him is never going to be enough.  Professionals are more apropos.

For the last time: if a cat could look at king, then it is the insanity of unwisdom to kick it without cause, without thinking.

(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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• Colossi, Counsel, GHK Lall, hard truths, President

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