We will not be intimidated

Nov 07, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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(Kaieteur News) – I like it.  The more I read Guyana’s Pres. Ali “Let it be known here and now we will not be intimidated, we will not bow, we will not be broken”, the more I fall in love with it, all of it.

“Let it be known here and now” has a sparkling ring to it, reminds of U.S. President John F. Kennedy (“let the word go forth…”) in his inaugural address from 64 Januarys ago.  I have flashbacks to Great Britain’s wartime Prime Minister, that old bulldog of Albion, Winston Churchill: “we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing ground, we shall fight…, we shall fight…”  A nod of approval to the president’s speechwriters, for churning out that rolling drumbeat of defiance.  A tiny exhortation, Dr. President – adjust volume and cadences smoothly.

Who will not be intimidated, nor bow, nor be broken, is my gentle, practical inquiry?  The GDF will man the fortresses.  But who else, Mr. President?  For sure, my fellow Americans are ready to do all the fighting, it is in their DNA.  But, let us all remember that only interests are permanent, not friendships, however special they may be proclaimed to be.  It is comforting that fact, the one where the US has Guyana’s back, and its flank, and its naked canopy overhead.  What history has shown and reinforced is that when money and war calls, money has won.  Look back at the same US, and how some bought a soldier from the beginning (the War of Independence) to the War of 1812 to the cataclysm of fraternal conflict (the Civil War).  If in a country with a history of war-making, even such a culture, then where would Guyanese stand in the event of spiraling conflict, and great personal sacrifices have to be made?  There is no history, no culture, of that here.

Again, I am enthralled by Pres. Ali’s language.  Where are the foundations, the substance, the human power to deliver on those heroic words, those phrases that intrigue and could inspire?  In this country, the speakers of heavy words, recruit others to fight their battles, do their distasteful jobs, that leave them with clean hands.  If for that kind of clashes, it eludes who will stand up, step forward, and say with hand over heart: here I am.  Send me.  When the stock-in-trade of conflict in the domestic environment is lurking in the shadows, and waiting in ambush, then what guts to face the human hordes in Mr. Maduro’s machine and hurl them back?  For sure, the Americans will do the heavy work, but that Regent and King Street gas station bombing exposed the long, vulnerable underbelly of Guyana, with an eye riveted on its targets in the capital city and environs.  The truth of the matter is that that long, soft underbelly is more exploitable than the long, porous border.  The latter is well-known, the former still not settled fully into the conscious of suddenly anxious Guyanese, of its potential vulnerabilities.

For all of the aforementioned reasons, it is imperative that a genuine and comprehensive start be made on the road to national unity.  When we tear apart one another, we are, in effect, diluting the very spirit that is called for now.  It is irrelevant whether PPP against the PNC, WIN, and the citizenry.  Or the PNC and WIN against the PPP and Guyanese interests.  It can never be, that seeing enemies in the conscientious and outspoken in Guyana helps to nurture an environment that resembles One Guyana.  It is dividing and diminishing the will of Guyanese to stand as one against the foreign interlopers and usurpers.  That is not philosophical or spiritual.  It is commonsensical and practical.  This homeland is under siege, and one less Guyanese, in an already thin population, is a loss of major proportions, however frail he or she may be.  Remember that a house of any kind that is divided cannot holdup.

The U.S. could be good to Guyana for manpower, airpower, and firepower.  So long as Exxon, Chevron, Citigroup, and others of that iconic American brigade take up residence here, there is some assurance of Washington having Guyana in its sights.  Let it not elude that 300 big ones, however heavy, will always trump 11 cheap, light and sweet crude ones.  Should some of those 300 big barrels enter the markets, Guyana could be wondering how it is no longer the talk of the world, but secondhand conversation.  At the end of the day, this truth should stick to every Guyanese like Crazy glue: Guyanese only have themselves for the best partners, neighbors, and caretakers.  When that’s reinforced, bowing and broken are never part of any conversation.

(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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• bombing, GHK Lall, intimidated, war

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