Straight talk

Feb 04, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News-I think it was the Native Americans who coined that revealing term: forked tongue.  Words that travel in different directions, mean different things to different people.  Usually well calculated beforehand, usually intended.  What has happened to straight talk in Guyana?  On simple things, big ones?  From observations come one consistent interpretation, conclusion: somebody is withholding something.  Somebody is not dealing in the real thing.  They are more than ordinary things that mean little, but big situations that have bigger implications.

President Ali speaks most feebly, unconvincingly about “sanctity of contract.”  Forked lightning, or forked tongue, is the question that stands unanswered before all Guyanese, whether supporter or other.  I see a fork in the road, and the one route that Excellency Ali chose, the refuge where he battens down.  The choice was simple, a mere tossup: renegotiation or election.  The president and his group didn’t hesitate.  Election is what must be.  Elections, head and shoulders, will always beat back and beat down any calls for renegotiation.  Straight talk, Mr. President, would have delivered something like what follows to the Guyanese electorate.  ‘The priority is the election and continue leading, for that will facilitate from referendum to renegotiation, and where Guyana goes from there.  Guyanese would detect a leader that can be believed, one that may even be trusted.  It is what has sanctity written all over it.

Vice President Jagdeo has made the Wales Gas-to-Energy project his signature undertaking.  For US$2 billion, Guyanese are owed more than a leader trapped in the throes of fudging, hedging, dodging, distancing, decrying about its foundations.  There is not one Guyanese that I know, who doesn’t want half price electricity and a reliable supply of it.  Show the people the studies, whatever papers are in the files.  Straight talk and straight from the shoulder.  No quibbling, no circling, nothing to be riotous about every Thursday afternoon.  What could be straighter than that, dear Dr. Jagdeo?  Can be done, is worth doing.  Just try it, Excellency Jagdeo.  Truth may hurt speaker and listener initially; but it makes both better in the long run.  Gas-to-Energy should not be such a secret, with all the hazy, tricky, talk.  Straight talk is what must be.  Come clean, no need to scream.  What is there to hide?  At least, US$2 billion should buy energy-starved Guyanese some clarity for that kind of money.  Straight talk, Mr. Jagdeo, try it some time.  Does have its merits, and they are irrefutable, as they are profound.

Hon Minister of the People’s Purse, Dr. Singh has lost the ability to speak straight.  I question myself as to whether the returning refugee from the Maldives ever had that ability at straight talk.  Reading a budget does not fit into this formula.  A week before the national budget hit the airwaves, cash grant distribution was among the most watched activity in this town.  For two days in succession (Monday and Tuesday) before budget Friday, Dr. Singh addressed the expectant in Guyana through the medium of SN.

‘Do not worry.  No need to panic.’  Arrangements are in motion, people will be paid, with some reference to the GDF space, the Sports Hall space, and RDC space.  Then all of Dr. Singh’s words came to naught.  They evaporated to nothing, disappeared from the national radar.  I am disappointed at this Guyana Scholar; he should be chastened, do that himself.  How difficult is it, my trusted brother Singh to tell expectant Guyanese this: ‘there will be a pause in cash grant distribution checks until after the budget?’

How undermining to the PPP Government could such straight talk have been?  Why was it necessary for the forked tongue of ‘don’t panic’ and those sites identified to set up the hopefuls for a fall?  My recommendation to Dr. Singh (and Drs. Ali and Jagdeo) is to be brave and frank with the people.  Tell them as it is, and go from there.  However, the cookie crumbles, it crumbles.

Last, there was that farce that is the tragicomedy of Guyana’s politics.  Dr. Singh in his dismal budget presentation paying tribute to “Madame Speaker.”  Is this a real country?  One where its people have some association with what is called character?  Is this a confirmation of the dominant national characteristic?  No man, no woman, should be so crass, as to crave access to what does not belong, what is long past its time.  Neither promise nor position nor power nor pickings should mean so much that the soul is first squandered, then what is left of it sold.  For what, a place in the sun?  It is a dark sun, one that is diabolical given its source.  As I have had cause to remind President Ali repeatedly, a man’s word once given is not returnable, not retrievable.  There was that agreement, that understanding, made with comrades by a sister that now sits in parliament.  It can’t be of no value whatsoever.  Madam Speaker rings mockingly, disparagingly.  Why defame self so willingly, so cheaply.  A mind committed to the straight empowers straight talk.  And walking the straight path impeccably.  If this is Guyana, Gaza looks like a better proposition.

(Straight talk)

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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• Forked lightning, Guyana, hard truths, observations, sanctity of contract

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