Law of the unintended

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

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – I tried my best to get the word to PPP General Secretary, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo.  But he refused to listen to people like me.  I warned the Big Man about the law of unintended consequences, of daring to test the patience of the gods.  I got a barrage of insults for my efforts, and a series of ambushes from all corners.  They must pay those foot soldiers well over in PPP land, for only loyalists of extraordinary standing are prepared to do certain dirty jobs.  My cautions were from five years ago.

Proceed smartly with the PPP’s candidate for the presidency, be careful of lurking peril, and with stinging nettles to torment further.  Give Guyana’s top town marshal a chance, and the country could be better for it.  Well, there Dr. Jagdeo is now, and here is where Guyanese are.  The presidency on the move, and Jagdeo moved to the role of finger-twiddling, impotent spectator.  Like a worried parent anxious about how far their offspring has gone.  It is the sweep of the law of the unintended; the uncontrollable coming out of the presidential showcase.

Pres. Ali flits over to Saudi Arabia, and there he was grinning from ear to ear, as though he was a contented cat that just swallowed a canary.  A loan for a billion American would lead to such a smirking, self-satisfied countenance.  I read and know that Suriname is part of that U.S. billion-dollar loan from the Islamic Development Bank and the Interamerican Development Bank Group, but if all Guyanese are at home burying their necks in the sand, that is their business, their right.  If I say it once, I say it a zillion times.  Suriname is part of the gloss, the mask, and the game, to give the impression of a loan that is not exclusively for Guyana.  In matrimonial language, Guyana is the dazzling bride, while Suriname is merely a part of the bridal train, not even the maid of honor.  I know and I applaud a nifty move when I see one.  And that two-bank loan with two countries bound at the hip is part of the charade.  What is Suriname’s share of that US$1 billion, US$100-200 million?

Let me test this for those who are squeamish, fearful of getting their hands dirty.  Bharrat Jagdeo stood as godfather for Irfaan Ali as president, and today he has his hands full.  A president that spins his wheels and cuts his own deals, with aplomb, with his own group of sponsors and those who have a watchful, familial eye on his back.  If anybody expects Dr. Jagdeo to take that one flush on the jaw, and not charge out of Freedom House with eyes blazing and objecting strenuously about those trying to divide the PPP fraternity, then their head is emptier than mine.  Nobody has to divide anybody.  The president is now showing that he’s his own man, and one most at home with certain kinds of people.  Move over Bharrat, the number one standing has just been lost.  There are new brothers in Guyana’s national leader’s sphere of operations, and the president just made that official.  I am confident that there are 80,000 Guyanese, at least, who will agree with me.  Imagine if that segment of the local demographics revolt, due to what is misinterpreted as a slight to their hero, the brother that they were waiting so long to embrace.

Slink away, Dr. BJ, the Middle Easterners have got first call on Pres. Ali’s interest and, to throw caution out of the window, his heart, too.  Take a look at the president, and there is confirmation.  Again.  Checkout his sartorial splendor, a man of curious good taste and going to great lengths to prove how much he is at home, and as one, with his hosts.  The man has come a far way, and poor Bharrat Jagdeo is now left to chew on dust and exhaust smoke.  I hear Lamborghini exhaust smoke smells and tastes as good as Estée Lauder Beautiful Eau de Parfum Spray with Notes of Rose.  Dr. Jagdeo should know, given the crowd with which he spends his spare time.  Me! I couldn’t even go within 10 kilos (kilometers, not kilograms) of such expensive goods.  Cost-of-living, folks can be that pinching, that killing.

So, what’s next in the remarkable evolution and transformation of Mohamed Irfaan Ali in this, the early days of his second bite at the presidency?  For one, transparency and accountability are secondary, while misinformation and disinformation have his attention.  So, the man himself swore.  Must have been on a Lamborghini, with scant relation to anything holy.  All this now leaves Bharrat Jagdeo’s nose out of joint, and consoling himself with time-wasting on Thursday afternoons.  It’s his idea of national policymaking.

(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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• Bharrat Jagdeo, Development Bank, GHK Lall, matrimonial language, presidential showcase

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