I warned Jagdeo, the more yuh repress, the more yuh regress, hello Financial Times

Jul 04, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – Who would have believed it!  Kaieteur News stirring the Financial Times.  And, as incredible as this sounds, Glenn Lall the man speaking to the grassroots on the radio resonating with the highflying Financial Times.  Other than for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg Financial Network, and probably Barron’s, there are no others in the upper atmospheres of the financial media reporting fraternity that could hold a candle to the mighty Financial Times.  Now Glenn Lall, the simple son of Wakenaam, is on the breakfast table of multibillion-dollar investors, old money clubs, and the strategy rooms of money managers.  I warned, leaned on, literally begged Bharrat Jagdeo that the more he worked up a sweat to suppress truth about this oil wealth, the straights of his managements, his curious partnerships, the more he would regress.  Suppress more, regress more.  Jagdeo being Jagdeo, he cussed and let loose his Central Committee armed forces to wage war.  Messing with one Lall is bad news, messing with two Lalls and it is asking for trouble.  Now luk wah he guh an duh.

I went out of my way to do Jagdeo a favor, and what did I get for my troubles?  A bad name, some dirty names, and names not even in the baptism book.  Perhaps, a little step into the sacred texts should remind my fellow Guyanese of something that is now doubly reinforced.  When truth and light are guiding stars, then they will shine from any windowsill, any doorpost.  Jagdeo brought out his calabash to cover down and now the Financial Times found its way to Guyana and if this is not a lash in he head, then Houdini is his middle name.  The bottom line is that when a global media entity with the sophisticated readership of the Financial Times thinks that it is meaningful to chat with a Glenn Lall (and others at Kaieteur News/Radio), then a few points are underlined.

The first is that many of the issues that KN presents on paper or on the airwaves, and along the way in cyberspace are resonating in the high and far corners of the world.  It means, second, that there is recognition of the voice and spirit of the underdog speaking for the weary underdogs.  A global audience gets to hear from a courageous citizen, who happens to be a newspaper publisher, about the scaly underbelly that is part of the people’s patrimony.  How ruling and other politicians in Guyana have sold out their people for a bag of dimes.  How national figures have tied irreversible knots with foreign corporate predators and plunderers to scalp and gore their people.  How they have dug deep holes for their reputations, with still deeper ones still dug for their own expectant people.  A disgruntled and disillusioned citizenry is an angry one, can be a volatile commodity.  This is not cheering for share prices, nor helpful to investment returns, nor acceptable to those who like for things to be done by the book.  There is no doubt that capitalism and oil profitability are a game for rapscallions and brigands.  But there are those who, on occasion, have difficulty with runaway wrongdoing.  The oil wealth of Guyanese-the real ones and not the ones that got rich from it by hook or by crook-has been the lodestar of Kaieteur News and Kaieteur Radio.  I confess that sometimes I think that there is a bit of overload.  But that is why the people of the Financial Times jumped on American Airlines from London’s Heathrow or New York’s John F. Kennedy and made a beeline for Saffon Street, La Penitence.  There is a big market of oil thoughts in that small space.

I urged Jagdeo don’t lash and bash peeple like yuh head ain good.  Be open to graciousness. Be welcoming to conflicting positions.  But, most of all, speak with the persuasive power of inarguable truths.  The man has ears, but there is no listening in him.  Of course, he is so far gone down a dark road that he has no option left but to continue and hope that the storms dwindle down, then disappear.  Everybody has their eye on Guyana, and only the most pristine leadership accuracy and integrity with this mouthwatering oil bonanza will carry the day.  Something got mangled in the PPP Government’s sales machine, which is why a Glenn Lall and KN can come into their own.  Beat up professionals too long, and outsiders wonder why, what is going on.  Gain a reputation for the repugnant and there are those who ask themselves what is beneath the surface, what needs to be probed and fleshed out.  It is my belief, my experience, that both the PPP Government and its goons (the two are twins), and Jagdeo and his junk news have become eye openers, and spread to far places, left many uncomfortable.

I made it my duty to tell and retell bhai Jagdeo, the oil man, the national man of the moment that there is only one way.  Do the business clean, do it straight, and the world will rush to doorstep, hang to his every word.  Well, the Financial Times has winged its way to Guyana, and look at who is on its agenda: a man name Glenn Lall, and the newspaper that Jagdeo calls a rag, the Kaieteur News.  When people caan hear, deh duz gat fuh feel.  Hang it all out, Lall.  The world will be reading.

(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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• Bloomberg Financial Network, Financial Times, Glenn Lall, Wakenaam, Wall Street Journal

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