Profiles in Leadership: David Hinds

Jul 21, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – This started out as a five-piece suite. Then, realization came. David Hinds belongs in these profiles of leadership. I begin, though barely knowing the brother. Disclosure first. Programs are regularly shared with this citizen, even a podium once. These profiles are done by my own initiative, nary a nudge from anyone.

Dr. Hinds has battled for Guyanese. He bears the bruises of his people, from the days of Burnham to the times of Bharrat. A long span for a man to cover, endure. There are some who scorch him: a racist. When I fight for my people, I am a tribalist, a purist, the best of jurists. When Hinds raises his voice for his own, he is a racist. Every Guyanese who still has his or her head in the right place, should know when I mentioned ‘I’ two sentences above, where such refers. It isn’t applied to Hinds. There is that r word reserved for his kind.

When a man speaks straight in this country, there are many blacksmiths waiting with their sledgehammers and anvils to bend to shapes of their liking. It is why good folks like Alistair Routledge can stride through this country with all the swaggering pride of ownership. He owns. Because such has been relinquished to him, and he is not releasing his iron grip. Not for another 40 to 50 years. I hear Bob Marley: Africa Unite! I watch: Guyana Disunite! Disrobe itself, too, under leaders fearful of jeopardizing their coveted spots.

When Hinds could have stayed still, he stood up. Burnham didn’t take too kindly to such folks. When he calls out the real racists and their racist policies, he is made into a racist. With whatever respect due to other Guyanese, I prefer a man that is a racist to my face, than one that is racist hiding in a closet and pretending to be my best friend. Black Americans can share an encyclopedia on that kind, having lived for centuries in the Old South and then up North afterwards. They swear that the racists in the north are more insidious than the ones in the South. Guyanese know that they live with that kind of two-faced hypocrites, but passivity shackles them from calling it as it is. Economics also have a role, and it can be a paralyzing one for many. Too many, too deeply.

From economics to politics. When his peers and comrades took issue with Aubrey Norton and the PNC (or both), David Hinds raised his hand, stepped forward, marked his card. He was from then with the then embattled Leader of the Opposition, as his comforters put on their walking shoes, made haste to separate from the PNC. A man that shows his hand early, takes a stand against the circumstances that go the other way, that is a man to recognize. Someone to whom I could tip my hat, whether I agree with him or not. I find myself thinking what Rodney would have done differently, if he were still around. If he were faced with today’s environment, today’s political leadership constructions, realities. How would he have been….

The bottom line for Hinds is that he is going to try, give his all. Win, lose, or draw (or match under review), his best is what is put out. The quibbling over ascending/sharing is either worked out behind the scenes, or is shelved for a later moment. Believe it or not, I think of Anil Nandlall and David Hinds together, but in one regard only. Like Hinds, Nandlall sees the bigger picture, takes the longer view, when internal political matters are involved. The AG manage to help his ego go lower. It is leadership of a different kind. In Nandlall’s case, it is the franchise. In Hinds’ vision, it is the people. The agitated will say that it is his own people. I remind of them of a little inconvenient something: just recall who were his people back in the 1970s and 80s. At least, those who stood to be the bigger, if not biggest, beneficiaries back then.

I see those who will draw a line in the hard ground, drive a stake into it, and say ‘this is where I stand.’ Whether I agree with them or not, it would help this country, if there could be a few more Guyanese who could dig for the courage and find it, to say the same. Those who go against the grain, not for a chance at personal gain, for the cheap opportunism that now flourishes. But for what may offer a different, a better, society. What means something for those struggling without hope, those desperate for someone, for some way, to help them cope.

David Hinds may object to some of what is shared here. But who are we, if we can’t even disagree? Such are the demands, the perils, of leadership. It would be refreshing, if Guyana could have more of this quality, now such a rarity.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of this newspaper.)

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• David Hinds, GHK Lall, Guyana Elections, leadership

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