Little people v. Big people

Dec 09, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall

(Kaieteur News) – Everybody is coming out of their shells and having a go.  Let him have it.  Lock him up, lose the key, and leave him there.  For life.  The lawless must be dealt with unsparingly, sends a message, acts as a deterrent, to other Guyanese weighing the pros and cons of getting out of control, carrying on, and behavin’ baad.  Everybody in Guyana suddenly finding their voice and calling for the cat o’ nine tails and for the errant policeman in the interior to be keelhauled.  When a man breaks the law, then steps must be taken to bend him carefully and break him back gradually into society, after a healthy period of introspection in the penitentiary.  But I have a question: why is it that Guyanese are only up in arms when it’s the little people who get out of line, make simpletons of themselves?

Here is another question.  What about the Big People?  How is it that fellow law-abiding Guyanese are then more subdued, then reaching for vinegar mixed with garlic to clear whatever is blocking their throat?  Whatever prevents them from speaking as boldly and loudly, as they are doing with that little cop who lost it in the hinterlands?  Walking around and waving a loaded machinegun shouldn’t be anyone’s idea of fun, and then letting loose with a few to show that they mean business.  To say differently, don’t get in the way, don’t mess around.  Serious stuff with serious penalties, I agree wholeheartedly.  My concern is that what goes for one must go for all.

In case others forgot, I didn’t.  Remember Matthews Ridge and 4.4 tons of the stuff that push young children to have no time for their books, and make big men and women give up on honest labour, take care of their families.  Remember the cost to the economy and the pressure on the health system.  And don’t forget the example set for junior ranks, gangs hovering schools, and the glamour that many want a piece of for themselves.  Seems that in such times, there is fidelity to due process, which includes finding a suitable exit strategy (spare parts and spare tires) before sending off on administrative leave.  Frankly, it was Uncle Sam that hurried the reluctant in that direction.  No Uncle Sam development, no Big Brother in Guyana moving, doing anything.  Recall what I said: little people get battered, with the book thrown at them.  But when it’s Big People, nobody in Guyana can find their voice, or know what a law book looks like.

They used to call that different folks, different strokes.  I call it as I see it: li’l people, and big comrades.  And riding a crooked horse.  And more, part of the sickness that plagues this society.  The next time I come across the Hon. Attorney General, Mr. MA Nandlall, SC, MP, I must bring that up, and absorb what he has to say.  If anyone happens to encounter that other brother, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, please do a favour and relay the same question.  Incidentally, it was the same AG M.A. Nandlall, who had something to say about Guyana’s institutions and parliament and the global stigma that would result if a certain character and electoral winner ended up as Opposition Leader in that venerable House.  From how democracy and due process work to worldwide stigma, required only a quick two-step.  See, why I love these guys like brothers!  They are unbeatable.  They’re unforgettable.  They are unmentionable, can get irascible.

Somehow, all the bright people in this country wiped their hard drives and memories clean; purged their filing cabinets empty.  I help with a refill.  There was a drug bust in Antwerp, where they deal in tulips and diamonds.  One more bust, that time in Hamburg, Germany.  Re the others that had weight, I lost the ability to recall.  How is it that the same Hon. Attorney General of Guyana didn’t get too worked up, raised even a bead of sweat, about stigma then?  Guyana has gained a terrible reputation as one of the leading drug transshipment points in this neighbourhood, more accurately the world, and Mr. Nandlall took a sabbatical, and watched contentedly as a cat hijacked his tongue.  Stigma, what stigma?  He was purring quietly during those tumultuous times.  Today, he is plastering the eardrums of Guyanese with his newfound discovery of stigma in the heat of extradition demands.

I close: do the crime, serve the time.  Little people, big people, must all pay the debt they owe the Guyanese people.

(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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• Big people, GHK Lall, Little people, shells

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