Guyana elections: From no US to too much US

Jul 25, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard truths by GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – First, it was Exxon.  Now it is America.  America had long been the versatile foreign magician working its magic tricks here.  Elections.

PPP out, PNC in; PNC out, PPP in.  Now America is back again, and up to its old tricks.  No Mohamed in the house.  No chair for him in the seat of government, even if Guyanese say, he is the one for we.  It’s back to the future and Jagan again.  Is this what foreign help and foreign investment have come to in Guyana?  More unsparingly, is Guyana still a country?  Was Guyana ever a country?

Exxon says that whatever this sovereignty does, it can’t make any law that causes it economic impairment.  If these are the balls on which Guyana’s parliament rolls, produces for the future, then of what good is it?  What necessity, vitality, it holds forth?  Exxon neutered Guyana’s parliament, when it cutoff a part of its anatomy, so there is that eunuch left that is called Guyana.  Guyanese-whether PPP or PNC-get some damned self-respect.

Scrape away some of that shame smearing and dripping from the face and dare to stand up and say F— Y—(expletive deleted).  And your mama, too.  Exxon still has people like the noble Alistair Routledge having the unmitigated gall to face the world and represent itself as a partner of the Guyanese people.  The old American slave masters used to love to trot out that line.  See how happy they are, how civilized the slaves are!  Good treatment that only a caring master and partner could give.  Exxon gives.  Here’s how.  Want a cricket bat?  Have one.  In search of a government that is democratic through and through (John Hess), the PPP is the one, and the PNC would also be the same and deliver, if given the chance.  Wishing for a leader that is a parrot and a pawn, now that’s a challenge, since the field is so rich, the pickings are so sweet.

My Lord, my God!  An oil company controlling a country.  Correction: an oil company that is a country.  An oil company’s proconsul that is a commander-in-chief.  Did somebody shout, that’s Guyana?  For those who have never heard of that before, get used to it, shut the face and live with it.

Now up comes America, another friend of Guyana, one that shares a special relationship.  When a friend can determine and change every goddamned government that this country has had, then it is a special relationship, indeed.  Exxon makes Guyana into an apology for a country.  America makes Guyana into an ass of a country.  Concern over Mohamed ascending into government.

Concern when employed in the lingo of international gangsterism (big power diplomacy) signals the pursed lips preparing for the kiss of death.  Goodbye Mohamed.  Gone with the Wind, Mohamed.  I heard that it is the power of the ballot box that decides who is government and who is loser.  Really?  Since when?  When in Guyana?  When I laughed at that business (the people and the polls), I had to dodge some kicks to the face and spittle as a parting gift.  What I have been saying along, insisting, is that America has taken upon itself the onerous task of who is winner and who belongs in Guyana’s political wilderness.  Recall Jagan.  Remember Burnham; he was always smart, he checked out early.  No! none of this has anything to do with oil.

It is about what is free and fair.  Democracy.  North Korea’s Kims have made that their manifesto for the last half century.  At least, I got that one right.  About ballot box impotency, and foreign helper power.  And real objectives, too.  The Greeks wanted to help the Trojans, so they built them a horse.  With friends like America, Guyana doesn’t need the Mafia.

I have heard about a hung jury.  Then I heard about a hung parliament (Exxon’s diabolical slave contract).  Now, Guyanese get the pride of ownership: a hung country.  A country hung on a tree with a rope around its neck.  The knee first as introduction and dress rehearsal in 2020.  Now there’s the big orchestra and big dance.

No to Mohamed in government.  Concern is a euphemism, a parable, for NO!  The man hasn’t said a ruff word about oil, and it is no to his face being seen in parliament, in the corridors of government.  They say that America is about politics and Exxon is about business.  Well, there they are: the intermingling, the blending of oil and politics.  Those who have eyes must stop pretending at blindness and see.  Those who ears must hear this note, and let it resound in the heart.  If there is still a heart and a head to think.  America and Exxon, that’s the real partnership, baby.  They’re the special relationship, honey.

(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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• Exxon, GHK Lall, Guyana Elections, sanctions

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