Like Christians of old

Aug 22, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – WIN’s Mohamed is a Muslim, according to my intelligence. How much of a believer, practitioner, is up in the air, unknown to me.

But forced to operate in 21st century political Guyana, he is in back in the 1st century of the Roman Empire under despots for emperors. Moving from house to house on feathery feet. Plus, muffled tones of engagement. And under the cover of veils of secrecy and the thick canopy of darkness. That was the life of the early Christian pioneers when sharing the Good News of the Kingdom, of the hopes that came with it.

By no stretch of the imagination, or any element of reality, does Mr. Azruddin Mohamed, he of the teachings and prospects of the WIN doctrine can be said to be a Christian pioneer. Perhaps, a Guyanese political pioneer, but not a Christian one. Yet his travels and travails bear an eerie similarity to the existence of the heroes and martyrs toiling onward in the fledgling activities of those first missionaries of the Book. Mr. Mohamed does have his own book, but he has had the book thrown at him by the Americans first, with his own former brothers following close on those foreign heels. To push the envelope to the limit, maybe past it, he must have some passing idea of what it is like to be the carpenter’s son from Galilee. Whether as old as two thousand years ago, or as new as just yesterday, the sting of betrayal pierces deeply, lasts eternally.

Now he is hounded everywhere, with no place being free, where he is allowed to show his face, rest his head. If there was ever a Guyanese forced to be on the run, it is WIN Mohamed. The PPP is determined to make him into a loser, even if its people have to end looking like the lowest losers.

Now he is cornered everywhere, and every avenue slammed shut, with one roadblock after another in different parts of Guyana erected to thwart his presence, or undermine his arrival. A king in full paraphernalia, and with royal carriage intact, has not been subject to such well-laid plans of welcome. Sad to report, not even a president of the United States of America, Guyana’s special friend, and defender of the PPP Government’s cause, would be afforded such a thoughtful, well-orchestrated greeting party. For his part, the candidate that is generating so many waves, responsible for much consternation in the breasts of Jagdeo and his Palace Guard, may think of his receptions as more that of a hunting party than a welcoming party.

Now he is pushed and squeezed into one tight corner after another. He seeks refuge in the waiting arms and listening ears of private homes. My recommendation is that he walks with his own trusted taste tester and water carrier. I must admit that this is a curious kind of democracy that honorable men like Vice President Jagdeo practice in this country. I always thought that democracy was standardized. Now I know that in Guyana, Dr. Jagdeo mixed his own toxic brew. Brewed at Freedom House and State House, it is marketed: Get Mohamed. Deny Mohamed. Diminish Mohamed. Destroy Mohamed. Drag him into the gutter, even if one has to get gutted from head to toe and all the way to the underwear. Funny, this Jagdeo and PPP democracy. Check this out.

No public gathering, says agents of the ruling party, the VP. No ads accepted in the sprawling State media. The government’s preference is to use taxpayers’ money to beat him to a pulp. No presence on any channel controlled by the local despots and their zealous enforcers. Mohamed now knows what it is to fall from the throne of luxury, from a protected species, to the dungeons of a political leadership penitentiary in Guyana’s democracy. What does that say about free and fair, what reasonable, credible? To some degree, that is what is now the PPP story for the man from WIN, who believes that he can win something, and who Jagdeo and company have a frightening feeling that he could just pull off such a September shocker. Me, I limit my beliefs to the Messiah and not in mortal men, mere man.

Now Mohamed knows the shaky, uncertain existence of an old jailbird. Free as the wind, yet twice as scrutinized, doubly pursued by vengeful men. I see a man made into a national felon, a fugitive from the clutches of a political gulag, escapee from the PPP chain gang. No wonder high priest Jagdeo is beside himself with fury, many varieties of frenzy. Mohamed is dangerous. He must be stopped, whatever it takes, even a box. The past is now the present. Asia Minor under the Romans reincarnated as Guyana under the PPP.

(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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• Christians, GHK Lall, Mohamed, Muslim, win

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