The curious case of the Mohameds

Mar 11, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths…

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News-The Mohameds and the PPP Government were once inseparable.  May still be at the top.  The Mohameds were all-powerful and all over the place.  Today, they appear to be nowhere, other than a threatening place on the PPP (party’s and government’s) radar.

How come and what’s happening are fair questions.  I try to answer, though am sure to fall short, in this curious case of the Mohameds.  A revealing one, it is.  To clear the air, I do not and cannot represent the Mohameds.  They are the best ones to do so themselves.

The Mohameds were going along kitty-kattah (in American: lickety-split), when their world came crashing down.  US Treasury through its feared OFAC arm.  The question in the minds of Guyanese has to do with the source of the American action.  Georgetown or Washington?  If not the source, then who’s the instigator.  Because it the first of many mysteries that men of the regard of the Mohameds could fall so rapidly from grace.

Leadership graces.  PPP Government grace.  President Ali has not been his usual boisterous self in the swirl of developments that has circled and tightened around the Mohameds.  Mostly a pregnant silence has been his new standard.  Not so, the other president who has grabbed that microphone and those headlines for himself.  Where nary a bad word could ever be said (or heard) about the now embattled family; today it finds itself on the outs and having no friends in high places.  The first mystery that came early and has since taken up residence.

The second mystery followed shortly after OFAC dropped its bombs on the Mohameds.  The Attorney General’s Chambers (Carmichael Street, not Middle Street) dawdled and wheedled and meddled (a different type).  The curious became curiouser.  Papers being compiled for US submission.  There was some uncertainty about the Treasury Department and the Justice Department.  It did take a while to sort this second mystery out, before the Guyana Government’s mailbag reached the right people in the US Government. Then, there was a twist.  Enter Hon. Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn.  When asked for an update about where the Guyana Government was with the US and its OFAC sanctions on the Mohameds, his response was as appealing as cooked chowmein left in the sun for several days.  In my own words, the PPP Government is going through what it received from the US Government, and the objective is to get everything Ganges River pure.

Who could find fault with such an effort at impeccable scrutiny?  Certainly not I, though I do have a few spare thoughts for the public.  It looked like the government was buying time.  I believe that the PPP Government was playing both sides of the street (foreign and local), as it walked a thin line.  The challenge was how not to double-cross old friends, allegedly falling afoul of the straight and narrow.  And also, how not to cross the Yankees bent on their mission, and get on their wrong side.  Then Mohamed, the younger one went and spoiled things, and made everything easy for the PPP Government.  His name came up in a special way, a way that causes great fear in Freedom House and some big houses occupied by large people.  In a nutshell, in this curious case of the Mohameds, what Guyanese got was another mystery.  The purity of politics in Guyana, or its room for limitless perversity.  The power of smart political leadership in this country, or the distortion of power in the hands of those who are good at such activities.  As used to fashion a noose for the Mohameds.  I regret having to overload fellow citizens with so many mysteries in one go-round.

It is no mystery that as soon as Mohamed Junior showed his face and his name kept coming up in the realm of politics that all bets were off, everything changed.  All the previous squirming and hedging were over.  All the delaying became a thing of the past.  Everyone in the PPP Government got a sudden burst of energy.  One man made a big speech about the government not taking on undue risk for anybody.  Hear!  Hear!  Tell em, brother!  To my knowledge, the man said to be a presidential candidate in the making has no party, has not embarked on any political campaign, or taken out any political commercials.  But he is now PPP Enemy Number 1.  Regard for the demands of the law (overseas), or the rottenness of politics?  The PPP kind more than any other.  Guyanese are free to be the judge.  Me, I am not saying.

But this must be said.  When Vice President Jagdeo got entangled with VICE News, I said give the man space to fix himself.  When then Minister Nigel Dharamlall fell off the ladder, my position was clearly stated: I don’t kick people when they are down.  Now that the Mohameds are in the hot seat, they are due the same courtesy.  Relative to innocence or guilt.  Relative to constitutional rights, democracy’s standards, and the operation of law.  Reality is that the case for or against the Mohameds grows curiouser by the development.  Fascinating, I say.

(The curious case of the Mohameds)

(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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• hard truths, Mohameds, PPP Government, The Attorney General’s Chambers

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