The first 30 days

Oct 02, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – The first 30 days of Pres. Ali’s second term has been well, ah, moving.  Relax my fellow citizens, no fireworks from me in October.

Out of place.  Maybe in December when the first hundred is eclipsed, the times more rollicking.  But not in October when the only people having fun are Germans floating on a cloud of suds in their biergartens.  What do I make of the first 30 in this 2^nd go around, for Excellency Ali and his band of merry men and spirited lasses?  Plenty, obviously.

A cabinet is in place, and presidential polish has introduced quite a gleam.  The president has shuffled some nice folks around, but he will have to keep his eyes glued on them.  No funny business.  He promised.  Already some of the recycled are on the road and burning up quite a bit of rubber.  ‘Get the job done or get going.’  Region 10 bubbled over with echoes that were heard all the way in GT.  Another brave political soul, another Ali appointee, went out of town and read one riot act after another.

Poor me!  I thought that the only place in Guyana that had what looked like riots, or could qualify as such, was the capital city.  But contractors in Region Seven got some headbanging and earsplitting.  I had warned umpteenth times: be on time.  Deliver on time.  Now the word is: Let this be the last time, for there will be no more time.  I like that kind of talk.  It is a mark of respect.  Potty training, too.  The ladies are looking good on political pathways.  These people mean business.  It means that people like me need to get out of the way.

Vice President Jagdeo was all earnestness prior to the elections when he committed to allowing some access to information.  Thanks, Dr. VP.  A bigger word of thanks for literally laying the groundwork to make that access to info a distinct reality in the near future.  For the skeptical, I invite a journey on East Street between Middle and Quamina, where the Office of the Commissioner of Access to Information is located, so they can see for themselves all the public works improvements going on right in front of that well-stocked office.  I know the address well, having been under the blazing midday sun fetching a picket during the protests against the information blackout.  Once again, thanks Dr. VP for laying the brickwork.  Anyone who says that Dr. Jagdeo is a politician who talks big and delivers little will have to go through me first.  Access to info is one campaign promise kept; well, at least, from the ground up.

Pres. Ali promised an anticorruption squad.  He delivered.  A one-man squadron called the Ministry of Efficiency and Implementation.  Howzat as a euphemism for an anticorruption squad?  With Hydar in the pedigree, Zulfikar is the right man for the job.  He’s already talking like the best version of a converted Guyanese-American.  His call to “best practices” is what gave his goose away.  I am glad that he didn’t adopt Motorola’s vaunted Six Sigma quality control program, with its Master Black Belt overachievers, for there would have been some badly bruised and battered in the corrupt ranks of Guyana.  The point that is driven home is that the president is serious and that word is spreading from the first 30 days to the next 30, then that milestone of a 100.  For what is best practices with projects, if not let it be clean?

Next, I heard that Dr. Jagdeo’s Thursday afternoon press shindigs are almost as serene as Sunday School since dusk arrived on September 1^st.  There’s conspicuous improvement.  My friend, Norton; preference is working with PNC.  Say what?  I prefer the old Jagdeo more.  Where is all the exciting material going to come from now?  Frankly, the liking is for the old PPP of wild-eyed ministers, a rambunctious VP, and the straining-at-the-leash president in full Olympian vigor.

This being Guyana, there always will be spoilers and contrarians.  The president went to the UN and spoke of ‘power not coming before principle’ to which some ruff people in a local media outpost retorted, ‘look who’s talking!  He should look right in his own backyard, the ole hometown that looks the same (Tom Jones).  Like I keep on saying, it is difficult to please all the people all the time.  From my perspective, the Irfaan Ali second term has gotten off to a solid start.  Of sorts.  The president and his team should know that the road ahead is long, and longer and much deeper with citizens who are chilly in their discontent.  Last, Pres. Ali has shown that he can rock.  Now he must demonstrate that he knows how to roll.  Recall: best behavior for the first 100.

(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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• GHK Lall, Irfaan Ali, PPPC, Second term

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