Latest update October 5th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jul 16, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column
Kaieteur News – Bharrat Jagdeo craved for power. Well, he got it. Irfaan Ali fell head over heels for the presidency. He, too, is on a high horse. Do I feel sorry for the two of them, or do I? The two biggest trash talkers in Guyana cannot even breathe, much less blink, now that the Americans took a long, hard look at them. Be careful what is wished for, because when they come true, it isn’t as it was made out to be.
Some Americans did a study that took 30 months (it was longer) and they next went before a mic. In a split second, both Excellency Ali and His Esteemed Majesty Jagdeo were off on a motorbike. Long before the first paragraph could be finished, both human political powerplants in Guyana were at full attention and stiffly saluting: we will get the job done. Housecleaning is already underway. Heads will roll. Regs will be tightened. Now here I was thinking that Guyana is a sovereign nation. Is there such a creature as partial sovereignty? Will somebody help a dumb country boy, please? But there it was, with the Yanks telling Dr. Ali and Dr. Jagdeo that this is the law (Guyana’s) and this is the set of citizens (Guyana’s) and this is what has been broken (Guyana’s). So, get going and do something about it. That sounds to me like a gilded cage: all that glitter but inside there is still the reality of two powerful national men trapped in a jail of their own making. Lions are known as the king of the jungle, which has considerable merits. Now look at what these two local kings did to themselves in their lust for power. They went and ate out of the hand of the Americans and ended up in a locked cage. Just like lions who got careless. Now they have each other for company and recollections of where they went wrong to emphasize their misery. Whether a golden cage or one made from ice-cream, a jail is still a jail.
I went out of my way to tell them, exhort them, even beg these two wayward and rowdy brothers of mine: be careful with the white people. If the promise is made to walk on the straight and narrow path then, by God, just do it. When the gospel preached was about throwing the book and kitchen sink against money laundering, the PPP had a good, long laugh. “Politics is nah chuch! Now, who is laffing?” Now who are the ones making the biggest noise in Guyana about anti money laundering? President Ali is the lucky one. He has immunity. He should still remember Chile’s Pinochet. As for the other luminary, this gift is given freely: don’t cross the path of certain people. Think of a black cat. Cursed are those who heap calumny about the chosen. That’s a special cage I built for my brother Bharrat. My intelligence is that when the Americans spoke of a “network” in Guyana and “government officials”, they were looking upstairs. No! not to heaven, but to the hellhole that holding high office in Guyana has become. When Bharrat Jagdeo slinked around from one hole to another to bury State secrets (and Guyanese who dared to talk about them and called him out), the Americans had their radars humming like the GPL. Unlike the GPL, America doesn’t get blackouts. Not in DC, not at Langley, not at Quantico. “They gat yuh profile bhai Bharrat, and they don’t like what they see.” They also got his number and the connections have been made. Some correction is in order: after all the muscle flexing, what Jagdeo now finds himself in is more than a gilded cage. He is in solitary confinement. For the edification of my fellow Guyanese, the Americans have a Guantanamo all over the place, what they call ‘undisclosed overseas locations’. “Deh comin fuh he.” And it is not for talks. It is called locating the source of the concern.
I really do regret where these two very smart Guyanese find themselves. I warned them, but neither of the two of them were doing any listening. They were too busy spitting on and cussing out people they decided were obstacles to the sweet life. To be clear, I read that President Ali studied somewhere, and Dr. Jagdeo got his PhD from some dark hole in St. Petersburg. Therefore, they should be savvy citizens and sensible leaders. It baffles me about what was it that they didn’t understand about: i) deal straight; ii) deal with straight people; and iii) deal in a straight line, straight cards, and straight talk with the Yanks. Translation: be bright, walk in the light, and everything will be alright. I know that that will not win any Pulitzer Prizes, but it is the best I can give currently. But Jagdeo being Jagdeo, and handcuffing poor Ali by his side, he made them both go a different way. Of course, it is the wrong way. Now look at what is raining down on their heads. They are running around making speeches, trying to drum up business, like jailhouse lawyers. Here is my final piece of advice: the Americans are watching. They can recognize a fake headshake from far away. The gilded cage gets narrower, cramped. So does the noose.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
October 1st turn off your lights to bring about a change!
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