Ali!  Aali!  Aalee!  He’s the greatest

Oct 18, 2024 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

---

Hard Truths by GHK Lall…

Kaieteur News – The Romans knew about ceremony -look what they did to those poor gladiators and hapless Christians.  The British know about pageantry -just watch when they crown a new king.  But who knows about fanfare and trumpet blasts better than the PPP and a leader named Ali?  If ever there was a man riding into town on a white horse and to the rescue of the Guyanese people, it is Excellency Mohamed Irfaan Ali.  Ali! Ali! Ali!  Who’s the greatest, all 200,000 worth?  Finally, Guyanese get value from their oil money, and it is scheduled to begin immediately.  Indeed, it is gold, but the glitter is on the paler side of glory.

Thunderous applause greeted the president’s pronouncements.  One provision after another for the people.  Guyanese have been kicked while on the ground for so long that even a nudge from the toe feels like a great, big, hand up.  For homes with bare cupboards, their empty pots and plates, $60 billion is a big deal.  Hail to the headman for hitting one for six all the way over past cow corner.  To the drained and strained NIS, another $10 of the biggest, brightest bills.

Guyana must be an oil country, and Irfaan Ali must be the man in charge of the money.  From tight continence to overindulgence.  From pittance to halfpence ($200,000 [now $100,000] makes for a sweet ringing jingle) and a bigger bill for the treasury.  Ali will be back.  Is an election campaign built, successful, on one cash donation only?  Yes! The donations are going the other way today.  The history of elections of Guyana is that everything becomes upside-down.  Neighbours transform into Neanderthals, friends into foes.  So, it follows that politicians come bearing gifts.  What could be bigger and better than $100,000 cash in these hard times.  It has all the rich smoothness of a Rolls-Royce.  Ali!  Ali!  Ali!  Are Guyanese the proud citizens, blessed to be in the right place at the right time, i.e., in an oil producing country, or what?  With the right leader doing the right things for the right reason?  It is Ali to the franchisee: remember the cup.  Remember the cup from which the 100 nice ones came.  Will Guyanese fall for this magic?

Let the good times begin.  Immediately, as was said by Excellency Ali.  I wonder if that has anything to do with whispers of the discriminatory in the distribution of oil patrimony to selected PPP constituencies (farmers, others).  Plus, what has so far been largely about the budgetary shady.  Every household first, now every adult, it will be.  The wrangling and squabbling came on what is the definition of household just got solved.  The young people, the largest demographic in Guyana got their calls answered.  Those citizens who first saw a red haze will now see some green bills.  Why worry people, Guyanese have Ali and that is the end of any controversy, any stink and dutty story.

He waves his presidential wand and magic automatically happens.  Now, it’s $100,000 for all adults.  Count more votes for the cup.  It is why I love this country.  There is the money machine, and there is the voting machinery, with which the PPP has now overtaken the PNC.  How many Guyanese see-through what started out as relief, then transformed into a leadership and political farce, and which now holds the promise of a great fraud in the making.

In thinking of this $100,000 cash grant, the conclusion was always that there is something about the showman in Irfaan Ali.  The timing is there, and so is the flair for the moment.  The man did walk with his own marching band and parliamentary cheerleading squad, didn’t he with the $200 grand?  But now he has outdone himself by spiraling into a vaudevillian throwing caution to the wind.  The same people who managed to square the circle (kept inflation in check [well, at least, the official statistical side]) while prices are riotous in the streets, are now going for broke.  To repeat: when Christmas is gone and the money is done, Guyanese gon get bun: the new price levels will not be going down.

I call that politically orchestrated and induced inflation.  What say thou, Jagdeo-ji?  In a flash, with the stroke of a presidential pen, Ali and Jagdeo (and Singh) went from the incremental ($25,000) to the monumental ($200,000 for each household), then to the sublime ($100,000 for all).  Why take a chance with low gravy gradualism in an election year, when all the marbles are in play, and a bigger five-year payday is the inviting, mouthwatering prize that stands beyond 2025.  It is better to make a splash and give a stash of their own cash back to the Guyanese people.  Call it the anticipated return on invested capital, political leadership capital.  Despite “one-off” chatter, I still believe one more could be in the making. What Exxon can’t do for Guyana, the PPP Government of President Ali can do for Guyanese.  Ali!  Ali!  Ali!  Ai-yai-yai!  Say it loud.  Say it clear.  Say it repeatedly.  Who is the greatest, if not Guyana’s own Mohamed Ali!

---

• Christians, Guyanese, Irfaan Ali, neighbours, The British, transform

---