The best defence is a tough offence

Mar 13, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths…

By GHK Lall 

Kaieteur News- “Outrageous, vicious, and distorted.”  The identity of the speaker would surprise, coming up shortly.  It’s obvious that someone is angry, agitated almost uncontrollably. Something terrible has been done to them. In recalling those sharp, piercing words, I think of Guyana’s two chief governors, His Excellency President Irfaan Ali and the never-less-than-honorable Vice President.

Considering their own conclusions to various questions at different times about major developments, those flame-filled words could be theirs. Though different words have been used on different occasions that generated much heat, “outrageous, vicious, and distorted” could closely represent their own angry postures- their supposedly hurt feelings,

Both HE Ali and the VP have gone on record pretending to being the victim.  They have been wronged, and a litany of injustices has been inflicted upon them. In working up a sweat and claiming innocence of any leadership misstep or, even worse, suspected calculated escapades that injure Guyanese taxpayers, the two local leaders oftentimes have crossed into righteousness.  Maliciously wounded, they have been. No one could be so boiling mad, if they didn’t stand on the strongest, cleanest grounds. No one could be so barefaced as to go on the offensive, through taking public umbrage, at where he or she has been pushed, without proper basis. Relentlessly pushed and backed into a corner, then prompts that wrathful shower of words spat out in defiance.

Though I have lost track of the commentary that accompanies European sporting combat, there is still some familiarity with what was a mainstay of popular American sports. It was that the best defense is a strong offense. In other words, do not standstill. Do not allow others to think of a sitting duck that could be picked off at will. Go in the opposite direction. Take the fight to the enemies. Take aim at those who torment, who get under the skin and rub nerves raw. I invite my fellow citizens to recall the highlights of many of President Ali’s and the VP’s whiplashes at the independent media of Guyana. Sharp and savaging, both of them have been. Like a wounded apparition in the dark, they come apart at the seams, and lash out at the nearest, most convenient objects of their rage.

Dare to ask one a simple question that he doesn’t like about his oil portfolio, the hopes and aspirations of poor Guyanese, and he transforms into the best representation of an angry god.  Despite being exposed frequently as one made of snowflakes, he persists with the farce of being a man unjustly picked upon, one left with no alternative but to smash whoever is in his way. It is his way of evading serious questions, and which has the added utility of getting even. Make a straightforward inquiry of President Ali and he becomes all twisted into knots, a maze of high voltage electrical wires seemingly on the edge of electrocuting any offender in his vicinity. This much I can say with considerable authority: if there is one area in which there is transparency in President Ali’s government and leadership style, it has been his willingness to engage in verbal dustups and smashups. I regret to inform the Guyanese public that, in President Ali’s mind, that is what passes for accountability. In this tiniest of snapshots of Guyanese two bulldog leaders, this has been their verbal temperature and body language. In the circumstances, I have one question remaining, only one: when all this is weighed and measured, who are the ones that can be said, with justification, to be “outrageous, vicious, and distorted.”

For the edification of all Guyanese, the owner of those fateful words was a tragic American by the name of Richard Milhous Nixon. Those three to four words convey the essence of how he raved and ranted, how he raged, against the American media. Not on just one backbreaking issue, but also on a second. I confess to being selective but the nature of the two issues and their sordid histories speaks for themselves. They speak enough, so that Guyanese can think for themselves as they seek the truth on who is genuine, who is taking liberties with truth and the goodwill of all citizens.

The first issue was Vietnam. An issue that was wrenching America apart; one that forced a sitting president to call it quits; one that Richard Nixon rode all the way to the White House and then his waiting fall. He ordered the secret bombing of Cambodia, and then made heavy going of defending that move when it came to light. In the instance of Watergate, he was part of a large coverup of a crime that went up to the presidential suite. And what did Nixon do?  He stonewalled, deceived, and misled the media and the American people. This was the man and the leader of the free world who coined those three words: “outrageous, vicious, and distorted” to blast those who were pushing him for clean answers- the full truth. Baleful and brazen he was in his efforts to camouflage dangerous and dirty reality. Guyanese now have a choice before them.  It is to decide who is really “outrageous, vicious, and distorted” locally. Guyana’s independent media and conscientious objectors- truth seekers- are one side of the equation. The public can figure out the rest.

(The best defence is a tough offence)

(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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• American sports, hard truths, His Excellency President Irfaan Ali, Poor Guyanese, Vice President

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