Who are the thugs and hooligans now (Part I)

Mar 29, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths…

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News-  The People’s Progressive Party has made as its mantra, as a way of its life, as a compelling truth the presence and menaces of PNC thugs and PNC hooligans.  Over the years PNC thugs and hooligans have been long cherished stanzas of the PPP’s anthem overwhelming the minds of its supporters, of all Guyanese.  Claims to the contrary have been drowned out, and not without good reason.  Who are the thugs and hooligans today, I inquire?  From all indications, I think that Guyanese are well-positioned to identify them as belonging to the People’s Progressive Party.  Take a bow, Mr. President and Mr. General Secretary, for this is the palpable image of the PPP now seen by all.

Lima Sands, Essequibo.  Letter Kenny, Berbice.  Modernity and some of its obscenities have overtaken the ancient country, with the same visiting the Cinderella one, leaving her slightly limping from missing one silver slipper.  There is no election, other than what is distinctly in the air; yet election is at such dangerous high-voltage on the Ides of March (plus 10).  What could August and October hold if today is already of this, tense, nature?  I am sorry, but I forgot boorish and goonish, and just check from which quarter.  I could be wrong but I don’t think I saw or read any presence in the Essequibo and Berbice crowd that screamed PNC.  Cinderella may have had a silver slipper missing; I am searching for a silver lining in what is shaping up to be an election to outdo all other elections.  In potential ugliness.  In premediated, readymade, and orchestrated disturbances.  In what could deteriorate to the worst of brutish times.

The fact is that Mohamed the Newcomer has generated startling anxieties in the camp of the PPP General Secretary.  A truly strange development, indeed!  That is, given Dr. Benito Jagdeo’s (apologies, Bharrat [put that down to the aging process]) total confidence in a ‘landslide victory for the PPP in the pending general elections.  My arithmetic is that since he has enough votes for a landslide, then there are more than enough leftover votes for bottom feeders like the undeclared but still upstart Mohamed the Younger to grab, with little impact on the PPP.  Yet, there were believed PPP thugs and hooligans in full combat mode to deter the invading GT man and his battalion.  What is there to fear from the potential candidacy of Junior?  It is a source of unending mystery to me relative to how this country works, swallows its words, retrace its steps, and ends up in the same place.  Consider the following.

The PNC has all but officially declared that it is off the streets, due to a healthy recognition of PPP infiltration and authored mayhem targeting their own.  And as if to fill that inviting vacuum, in steps PPP foot soldiers and road warriors.  Don’t dare to come into my house!  Not one steps in our backyard!  Expressions from the newest defenders of democracy in Guyana, the Guyana Constitution, and the Guyanese way.  The PPP’s version and standard.  It was the incomparable and unprecedented President Irfaan Ali who went to a shrine called Babu Jaan and shouted in his inimitable style about the forces of evil.  Some may say it was a desecration in what is supposed to be a sacred and serene place.  I think it is more akin to a fine mental condition in a place now tramped upon in the manner of conquerors of old.  There was Suleiman the Magnificent and Timur the Terrible.  Here, it is my privilege to behold Irfaan the Invincible [and the Irascible, too].  Just don’t let that last whisper get out, or that he knows I said it publicly.  Are the Mohameds still Dr. Mohamed’s friends, still seen as well-wishers?  What about that once vaunted brotherhood?

For here is a man not yet 40 years old, and not a day in the demands and traumas of realpolitik, and he is seen as an existential electoral threat.  The man is not even a contestant, but he is made into the biggest and baddest competitor.  I ask humble pardon of the Mohameds, but here is what Guyanese call ‘a li’l bai’ and he is causing Ali, Jagdeo, and the rest of the troubled PPP, sleepless nights and daytime nightmares.  What happens if he does declare and join in the running?  Will President Ali declare a national emergency?  Will arrangements be made for an involuntary trip to Uncle Sam land?  Could he be held out as part of the machination (a tool) of that man Nicky Maduro?  If I only knew that elections in Guyana had all these excitements, I might have been tempted to leave the opium of the people behind and get in the fun, thugs and goons and hooligans and all.

What is next on the PPP’s welcoming committee for Mohamed the Challenger, Candidate Mohamed the Spoiler?  Never thought I would say this, but I miss Excellency Sarah Ann Lynch.  She would have weighed in about democracy’s ideals, constitutional mandates, and a peaceful environment.  It never ceases to amaze.  But there is the PPP bringing out the troops for the currently imaginary (elections competition), while there is Maduro and his men waiting to pounce.  The PNC must be having the best laff.  I think there is remembrance of Ravi, and look how majestic he became.  Who are the thugs of today?

(Who are the thugs and hooligans now (Part I))

(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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