Free intellectual thought

Oct 23, 2024 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – The Hon. Vice President and former president, Dr. Bharat Jagdeo said it.  Therefore, Guyana’s Ambassador to the US, and former president, Hon. Sam Hinds is entitled to it.  “He has contributed enough to this country to allow him to have a free intellectual thought, wherever he believes in…but they are hounding Sam Hinds.”  The Vice President said so, not me.  “Poor Sam Hinds”, was also what the former president sneakily squeezed into his righteous indignation, with the objective of sending disagreeable Guyanese on a guilt trip.  Former presidents do have their own club, except for David Granger who is left to putter about and muddle along in isolation.  Now it’s time to get down to business.

For starters, whenever Excellency Sam Hinds, former president, former Prime Minister, and current plenipotentiary meets the criterion of “poor Sam Hinds”, then Dr. Jagdeo, I am the richest man in Guyana, maybe even America.  As a little aside, that bit about “free intellectual thought” is there another kind?  Such as free visceral thought/thinking or of the physical variety?I could use the help.

Second, it is thrilling that a leader of the calibre of Bart Jagdeo could be so impassioned and so invested in, and so in love with, the right of “free intellectual thought” for “poor Sam Hinds.”  But how is it that his generosity does not extend to other Guyanese who exercise their right to freedom of thought and freedom of public expression, so long as such isn’t offensive or defamatory?  While running interference for “poor Sam Hinds”, Mistah Bart Jagdeo may wish to elaborate for the edification of the Guyanese people why his own close comrades (very close) in the PPP Government and party executive have smeared and slandered other people in Guyana for utilising that same liberty.  The liberty to speak out against the wrongs that have occurred under his poor oil stewardship, his even poorer policymaking.  If Hon. Bart Jagdeo wishes some names, all he must do is ask.  To date, Excellency Hinds has been taken to task, even pilloried, but he has not been defamed or reviled.  Should Ambassador Hinds differ, I would welcome a representation from the man himself.  As another quick aside, Guyanese should note that I have Americanized “Bharat” to ‘Bart”, which is the practice of our partners, who have little patience with non-Anglo-Saxon names.  For whatever it may matter, the lore of Texas is also laced with characters who lose favour and end up being identified as Black Bart, as a sign of regard and distaste for their special prowess.

Third, this issue of “free…thought” bears some additional scrutiny.  Why is that the PPP Government (previous and present) is so bent out of shape when citizens, few as they are, say that they disagrees Or that President Ali lacks the proper attire, in that it is invisiblers or that Dr. Jagdeo is a leader in name only, a man that is a shell, who is proud to be a huckster for foreign investors to the detriment of his own Brown, Black, and Bronze brothers (sisters too)?  The record is there.  Say a word that is intended to lift Guyanese and the PPP Government’s senior people (Drs. Ali and Jagdeo) swiftly remind of a rhetorical Freddy Krueger and that other grim reaper, a stalking Hannibal Lector.  Of course, the leaders limit themselves to words.  Ready and willing assistants get the message, do the heavy lifting, work overtime to prove themselves and please their masters.  In summary, there is something in the DNA of the PPP, whether as party or government, be they leaders or the cabal of losers that brownnose them, that is so insecure that there is zero tolerance for the “free…thought”, which Bart Jagdeo rhapsodizes so majestically.  Where free thought is concerned, the PPP Government simply does not have the stomach or makeup for it.  So, their people lash out, derogate and demonize.  I repeat that they are people in the bosom and comradely consideration, probably the chambers as well, of PPP leaders.  Once again, Mr. (Poor) Sam Hinds is respectfully invited to name those who were so incensed by his abject prostrations before his Causcasian neighbour in DC and the Guyana Hood, that they assaulted or attempted to assassinate him syntactically.  If Sam Hinds has been so excoriated that he is now “poor” then I am penniless.

Finally, I move to close out this self-serving and somewhat sordid story from Bart Jagdeo and his operatic flourish about “poor Sam Hinds”, and “free intellectual thought” and “hounding” of the man in Washington.  It is not my duty to speak on behalf of anyone else, as I have no such cause, envision no such calling.  But I can speak for myself.  No PPP man speaks on his own, not even one as proven as Sam Hinds.  He tested the waters with Guyanese should be thankful and so forth, and when a live labaria landed on his lap, the ever politically conscious (and too clever by half) Jagdeo distances from the poor man’s representations and twists things into his “free…thought” advocacy.  His advocacy is PPP and Guyana comedy.  Separately, more than once and in more than one publication, I made the point that the AFC leader has a conflict, and he knows what he should do -the right thing only.  Unchanged and unchanging is that position.  Excellency Sam Hinds is entitled to speak.  He must always speak for Guyana, only Guyanese, which is the sole standard laid before him.

(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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• and former president, calibre, Causcasian, Guyana, PPP Government, rhapsodizes, US

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