Defamation allegations, libel retaliation

Nov 28, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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…Hard Truths

By GHK Lall

 Kaieteur News- I prefer to look a man straight in the eye and tell how I assess him, relative to a specific situation, or through a general evaluation.  President Ali, Vice President Jagdeo, Attorney General Nandlall, three of the top decisionmakers and movers and shakers in this country, know where they stand in my eyes.  The identical standard applies to Leader of the Opposition, Aubrey Norton and AFC Leader, Nigel Hughes.  My objective is never to bring down, but about what could benefit the people of this country and them (in that exact order).  Oftentimes, some pressure must be applied, which leaders do not like at all.  I still must be true to myself, and stick to the Buckley’s Cough mixture school of relief.  It tastes so bad, it has to be good.  But the day that I pick up pen, touch a letter on a keyboard, to convey malice aforethought, or the defamatory with any degree of vehemence, then it is that hour that I lose any utility that I possess.  If a man can’t be true to himself, then who can he be true to, what does he truly represent deep inside?

It goes without saying that a thin-skinned man, a leader as insecure as Dr. Bhar-rat Jagdeo, doesn’t look too favourably at all these ideals that make for a calmer, better life, record.  Though repeatedly recommended to him with the best of intentions, virulence and violence have been what came out of him.  I had grounds to file suit against him, but I didn’t.  He owns that gutter, and there is zero interest in any temporary rental, let alone long-term occupancy.  My grounds were strong, as I believe; and when all the analyses are done, convictions are what carry through this life, turbulent as it can be at times.  He is not the only one.  But that lawsuit weapon is one best held in reserve for the most extreme of circumstances.  Citizens of this country have had a ringside seat as I have taken Dr. Jagdeo’s rumormongering and love of hearsay and hurled those right back in his face.  And because the door was opened, I roped in His Excellency President Ali and his honourable Attorney General, Mr. Mohabir Anil Nandlall.  There they dangle in the public square.  I am a firm believer in that standard of wartime U.S. President, Harry S. Truman: the buck stops here.  In Guyana, it stops with the names I identified.  I subscribe to the school of thought that CEOs and boards of directors bear ultimate responsibility for the criminal failures of their closet henchmen and hooligans.

So, when there is reading of this luminary and that bright light filing suit, the first thing said is that that is their right, their decision.  My teachings, system of belief, are that hate, and malevolence should not be responded to in like measure.  There are other ways to set wrongheaded and heavy-footed men and women straight.  But should that fail, then a genuinely straightforward mind will find the strength to denude those who seek to damage, if not destroy.  There is certainty about this as sure as the sun rises in the east.  There is the law of a man whose mind, whose visions, works at a certain level that make powerful men squirm and scamper away in ignominious retreat.  It is also deep-seated belief that lawsuits are the weapon of choice of the powerful who are really weak at the core.  When an opponent cannot be conquered in a clean contest and mano a mano, then there is retreat for a victory to the court, where such may be already guaranteed.  It is the way the system is set up in Guyana, functions in special circumstances, isn’t it?

To PPP Government and PNC and AFC Opposition leaders, it should already be obvious that there is no endorsement from this meager quarter for the Rodney King faculty of coexistence.  That is, to go along to get along.  To hell with that, and damn those who wage unholy war, so that others – men and women speaking their consciences, however objectionable such may be found-could be intimidated into silence.  Or bought out for their collusion in what is wrong and destructive to the interests of the poor and powerless in this society.  A man has a right to sell himself for any price.  After that, the only life left for him is to keep at being a seller of the filth of filthy men.  When leaders can lie to the face, as a matter of reflex action, then there can be no lying down and letting them have the freest of passages.  A national political leader is neither a baker nor a butcher nor a deli worker. His first instinct, frequently the only instinct, must not be to slice truth.  To slice away at those who ask for truth.

Those who refuse to cultivate honesty and authenticity are left with a choice.  They coddle criminals and cultivate criminality.  Ladies and gentlemen of the Guyanese jury, I present the PPP.  Lawsuits are the suits of armour favoured.  What is beneath that houses the real story.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)   

(Defamation allegations, libel retaliation)

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• AFC Leader, Defamation allegations, hard truths, Nigel Hughes, President Ali, Vice President Jagdeo

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