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President Ali – a profile in fear, weakness
Editorial…
Kaieteur News- There are a few things smaller than a man giving his word and then walking back on it, because doing so serves his interests. When he was on the campaign trail as presidential candidate, Mohamed Irfaan Ali made a commitment to Guyanese that he has now disowned. The 2016 ExxonMobil oil contract that he condemned in the strongest terms; he now hangs onto for dear life. When the pendulum swings so easily for a candidate that aspired to be a national leader and became one, then trust in whatever he says falls apart. If something as important as the ExxonMobil contract could be used so slickly to gain favor first with Guyana’s electorate, then with the oil companies, then the credibility of Guyana’s leading citizen shatters, has little standing.
“We have made it very clear, and we can never agree, how could, I don’t think any Guyanese agree with this, no Guyanese except the government that is defending it. We have made it very clear that we have to go towards, we’re looking at these contracts, renegotiating these contracts, looking at contract management and all of these things. Everything we have to relook at because we have to ensure that our country does not get the wrong end of the stick.”
Candidate Ali before, and President Ali now presenting two sides of a coin. Trusting Guyanese observe this when his postures and actions today as Guyana’s leader are weighed and matched against what he was so potent about before. He may prefer to eat those words, but they are his, and they highlight the dreadful contradictions of the president. They set in neon lights, the weakness and fear of the man who is supposed to be Guyana’s chief advocate, champion warrior.
With an oil warrior like President Ali, that war is already lost. We believe that he never intended to fight, but was playing the usual cheap politics that features so much in the local environment. Candidate Ali told Guyanese what they wanted to hear, gave them hope, then he turned his back on them, abandoned them to curry favor with a superpower oil company and its partners. From “we can never agree” to “we are honorable people.”
Indeed, honor has its uses, comes in handy in a crunch, no matter the unknown nature of it, the fullness of its expanse, to those who suddenly claim its mantle. The 2106 ExxonMobil oil contract that had not one good provision to recommend it to Candidate Irfaan Ali, now has everything to be defended by him.
If an ordinary citizen resists speak from both sides of their mouth on the same issue, it is imperative that a president not degrade to any lesser standard. When a president speaks from both sides of the mouth, he puts the presidency in the worst light. When a president leaves his people hanging, is proud to be among the chief backers of their exploiters, then he has surrendered any claim to self-respect, relinquished whatever hold he had on his high office. Who is President Ali for with this great national bonanza? Why is he so much against what would be beneficial to Guyanese? The answers to those questions support or subtract from his fitness to be in the place that he sits.
The man who wanted to be the primary national leader was all thunder and lightning against the ExxonMobil contract. Today, he has imprisoned himself in a role that does not project even a single flicker of strength, of leadership boldness, in terms of renegotiation of that reprehensible corporate construction. When he was a candidate for president, Irfaan Ali was about all that was manly in how he was going to tear that odious oil contract to pieces. Now that he is President, Ali and with all the obligations that go with that title and office, he is unashamed to shelter seamlessly in the role of a helpless child where the ExxonMobil contract is concerned. This is what Irfaan Ali has reduced the presidency to, diminished the instruments and power of the highest office in Guyana. The budget offers scant comfort to Guyanese poor, yet President Ali resists renegotiation for more for them.
(President Ali – a profile in fear, weakness)
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