The Ali Watch

Dec 14, 2025 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

---

Hard Truths by GHK Lall

(Kaieteur News) – Guyanese have their hands full and their minds fully attuned in this busy Xmas Season for Guyanese.  It is about more than black-cake and pepper-pot.  It is from the Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo watch to the Dr. Irfaan Ali Watch.  Like a baby delivery that is past its time, Dr. Ali is the man that’s in high demand.  The Jagdeo watch is temporarily over, given his recent El Cid appearance (maybe more later).  Inspiring and exciting, I say.  But now it is all Ali time.

The Ali watch involves more listening than looking.  What will the Master say, and when will he?  Say something, sir.  Please, sir.  Guyanese are counting the days and counting their chicks.  The days are shortening, and that has nothing to do with winter.  It’s the barren winter of Guyanese needs.  The chicks were already in short supply.  Now the chickens are lesser and scrawnier; down to the drumsticks, with feathers taking flight and filling pillows.  Imagine the psychological trauma on Guyanese men and women, who are told that they are richer than the Saudis, but all that they have to eat is a set of bricks, and any spare form boards used in construction.  This is a little glimpse of what the Irfaan Ali watch (and ear to the TV and Facebook) is all about.

Bharrat Jagdeo came and went.  Irfaan Ali is here and the people bat their ear, to use a Guyanese verb.  How much, Mr. President?  When, Comrade Leader?  Forget about US President Hoover, and let’s go all the way to France and 400 hundred years back.  A chicken in every pot for poor Guyanese would be a wonderful development, Dr. Excellency.  Poor Guyanese, not fat cat private sector Guyanese.  Poor Guyanese, not fat cat permanent secretaries.  Poor Guyanese, Mr. President (real poor ones) and not big cat ministers and contractors and other well-connected political operators.  They could use a word from Mr. Ali about a li’l something for the holidays.  Just a little something.  Not a million.  But enough money in hand for that chicken in the pot and, as extras, the pepper-pot and black-cake mentioned earlier.

I can’t even touch clothes, or think of bills past due, and the man coming to collect.  Oh Lord.  Forget about God.  Guyanese have Mohamed Irfaan Ali.  A good citizen, who due to his tendency to get forgetful (promises made, words uttered), needs a little nudge every now and again.  Seems like it has been more about again and again.  So, here I am, giving him a little nudge.  The Guyanese people are waiting.  They love roads and bridges.  But they love food more.  Some clothes would help.  And, if there is space to replace the carpets and blinds, that would be a cherished bonus.  I point the people past Dr. Ashni, for Dr. Ali is the real man with the real money.  No offence intended Dr. AK, so please don’t get upset, for that could be a problem for me.  All I am doing is giving a voice to the voiceless, being a presence for the powerless.  Where have I gone wrong?

Back to the big man, Big Boss Ali.  Like Dr. Jagdeo, Dr. Ali is also afflicted with the Santa Claus syndrome.  Frankly, Dr. Ali should have made his voice heard and face duly reddened seen since mid-October, when the Xmas carols started filling the air.  He should have sleighed into town on white horses with a ho-ho-ho and here is a bag of goodies for the adults and kiddies.  So that all are properly edified, the color of Xmas is red.  And if Pres. Ali and the PPP Gov’t can’t represent red with a little green, then what can they?  Guyanese are losing hope, skipper.  Guyanese are watching and their spirit is fading.

Say something, Excellency Ali.  The people have been patient.  Don’t hold them on a string.  Those jokes have a sting.  Don’t insult them.  They struggle.  They hurt.  They need.  Let me give a glimpse as to how bad, and how hard.  A dawn encounter on the street, and there are those Guyanese: ragged, shriveled, staggered, crumbled.  From life’s bruising, scarring assaults.  More on that later.  There are multiples of Guyanese close to that edge.  I know them, because I make it my duty to engage them.  Not make jokes about them before a well-fed, well-clothed, well-greased audience.

Sayonara time.  A man gives his word, that his breastplate and helmet.  A president makes a promise, he must power it through, come tornado or Maduro.  The Ali watch continues, listening posts well-manned with eager ears.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)   

---

• Ali, GHK Lall, Watch, Xmas Season

---