The not invisible US hand

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

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Hard Truths…

By GHK Lall 

Kaieteur News- “Your lives are going to look very different in five to 10 years under this leadership, and under this vision, as it continues, and we just want to be a partner.”  No! It was Pres. Ali carrying on, as is his wont.  Wrong again, not Vice President Jagdeo selling Guyanese sand and telling them that it is snow cone.  It was the man from America, Marco Rubio, Secretary of State.  When an official who is number four on the US presidential succession totem pole speaks in that fulsome manner about Guyana and what Guyanese have, all should listen.  I do.  Then I go deeper.  I call it as I see him and hear him.  I see and sense the not-so-invisible hand of my fellow Americans deeply immersed in Guyana’s politics, elections.

I picked up five powerful components in that quote of Mr. Rubio.  There were two others that he was as smooth as a crocodile’s back to leave out, which warned me to watch him even more closely.  One by one, here are my interpretations of the five elements in that first sentence extract above.  “Under this leadership” is a not-so-nuanced endorsement of the PPP, of Ali, and Barry.  Who else can it be?  Is there any other?  Did he get to make an assessment of any other in the Guyanese leadership cadre?  I know not and I think not.  Second, “under this vision” sounds rather ripe and has much to do with the surrender of Sanctity Ali and Better Contract Management Bharrat to the visions of Exxon.  Exxon is as American as apple pie, Marco Rubio is just as American as Don Trump, and Guyana’s Ali and Jagdeo are now more American than I am.  I call that a confluence of visions.  It is the extended genius of A=B=C=D.  The only ones left out of those visions are people like me and the rest of the Guyanese people.

But Marco Rubio did not make it to the grade of Secretary of State by being a charlatan or a weakling. He gave himself a Plan B.  For there was that essential third ingredient in his delivery: “Your lives are going to look very different in five to 10 years….”  I label that as how careful politicians hedge their bets.  Translation: the message to the PPP leadership is: behave yourself by being good to Exxon (and America) for the next five years, and 10 could be the happening thing.  A promise wrapped in some menace, which is laced into interpretation number four, now coming up.  For the fourth, there was that bit about “as it continues…”  From Rubio to Ali and Jagdeo, that last one was a song about playing along and everybody- America, Exxon, and the PPP- will get along just fine.  Do these guys that go high up choose their words like a jeweler, or what?  Fifth and last, there was this gem: “We just want to be a partner.”  Unsaid but left to no misinterpretation was just as long as it is understood and accepted by the subservient PPP Government of Ali and Jagdeo about who is the dominant partner, who is the supreme commander of Guyana.  This country is in for it, only it doesn’t know how deep, as yet.

The two pieces that Mr. Rubio was sensible enough to leave out after “this leadership and under this vision” were two beauties.  One is a beauty queen, the other is on the trashy side.  Rubio glowed with “this leadership and…this vision” but deftly sidestepped the ant’s nest of ‘this government.’  Even for ultra-placid people like Guyanese, that would have been a step too far, one that descends into darkness.  In the same vein, Mr. Trump’s high-ranking messenger was smart enough to shy away from saying ‘and that is why Guyanese should vote PPP’ later this year.  Taking his stream of words with deep meanings, he said vote for the PPP (five years) while giving himself cover against outraged objections.  For one, about US meddling in the domestic affairs of this house of horrors, going by the title of Guyana, and next, taking a deep dive into its dark and bitter and dreadful politics.  As a practitioner of the language of kings and conmen alike, with some honest people thrown in to balance the scales, I must tip my hat to US Secretary of State Rubio.  He covered a lot of territory by saying everything that was politically tinged and tainted, without saying anything that anyone could find offensive.  The only exception would be a character like me.  He managed not to get his feet wet, or too dirty in Guyana’s nasty, stink and dutty politics.  Me, I remind him of that old American adage: there is no free lunch.  Hence, he gets no free pass from this quiet nook in Guyana. Recall my position from earlier: I smell the not-so-invisible hand of America in Guyana’s politics.  It’s over, baby.

(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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