Stop the rigging, change the man, or let him compete

Aug 04, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – A new phenomenon is unfolding before Guyanese; one with a difference. Few Guyanese see or sense the tentacles of this development. Some prefer not to see; some shrug, continue unconcerned. There is a new kind of rigging marching in Guyana. In the array of forces unleased against We Invest in Nationhood (WIN), I discern a different kind of rigging. It is not of numbers twisted, but of numbers feared. In the language of the 2020 elections, there’s this unfinished spreadsheet unfolding before a watching nation, world. Democracy is being hanged. The grand ideals that many loudly say they are of them, are hanged. It is of a man being lynched by an assembled mob.

Mr. Azruddin Mohamed is a big boy in a big man’s game. The big game hunt of elections for the biggest prize. He needs no help from me. I can offer none. But what I can do is to stand for a man when the world is against him, costs be damned. As an underdog and outsider, I can speak for the underdog. For friends and loyalists in the PPP, a tiny reminder. When Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo had his VICE News traumas, I said something; it was the same said for Mr. Nigel Dharmalall. They are innocent until proven guilty. It was all I could give, and did. This is what I do today for the mobbed, besieged Azruddin Mohamed. Alongside, innocent until proven otherwise, I remember free and fair. My fellow Guyanese, what I remember, I also remind others of its existence. Unless free and fair died and no one mourned.

To the PPP, to the United States, to Guyanese, this is said: let the elections be about a fair fight with fair rules and fair blows. None of these subtle packages, newly arrived, of “concerns” from Washington, and ‘financial exposures and consequences’ now running riot in Georgetown. Oftentimes, the subtler the packaging, the slier, slicker it appears. Few are fooled. I cut to the chase. Charge Mohamed, let him have his day in court, kangaroo or otherwise; local or foreign. And whatever his fate, let that be. But this bleating piety about “concerns” and the ‘integrity of the financial system’ is just a little too rich. For those who are so learned, so inclined, I venture into another area to ram home my position about the broad, deep, soaring hypocrisy that now overpowers Guyana with its fetid odors.

There was a man from Mecca who was run out of town. Before him, one from Galilee, who was also run out of town, then hung up on a lamppost. And who were the people instigating the unrest and resistance against what the crowds of common people desired to see and hear? They were the establishment class, as made of the merchant aristocracy and the religious authorities. It is clear that a preponderance of rank-and-file Guyanese behold something different in Azruddin Mohamed. The powers that be here, be they political, commercial, even the spiritual recognize an existentiaal threat. I see a man that holds possibilities. Probably the Guyanese that citizens think represent a change of pace, an introduction to something new. But of what they know not.

To Dr. Jagdeo, to Excellency Theriot (whether acting on orders or her own astuteness), this I respectfully say: let the man compete on a level playing field, and let the Guyanese people be given their chance to speak. Then let the score be tallied, recorded. It is in the lasting interests of the US and the PPP that Guyanese do not believe that another (yet another) election fix is really what’s happening. For at bottom, who is the private sector for, and where is the banking component resident in Guyana? No question, they are about production and profits, but they are not immune from politics, too. The record confirms that the distance between Guyana’s moneymen and political men is akin to the space between Siamese twins. Something more for Guyanese to savor: for years Guyana’s banks have processed hundreds of millions (perhaps, billions) in checks from Azruddin Mohamed and there was not a hiccup, not one whisper of concern. Up until a year ago, the PPP Government and its leaders counted Mohamed as an ally and asset of incomparable worth. He was a saint then, who is now a sinner worse than even me.

Time to move on. The fear of Azruddin Mohamed is palpable, now undeniable. I urge his political adversaries to fight him the Mohamed Ali way (the American one): face-to-face and mano a mano. No boosters, no musclemen (banking, private sector, foreign contingent). Straight up. Straight count. Cease this booby trapping (rigging) of the elections’ territory. The public lynching of Mohamed now in full swing must stop. Charge him, condemn him. Or, let him compete cleanly.

(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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• Azruddin Mohamed, GHK Lall, Guyana Elections, rigging, We Invest in Nationhood

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