Calling the opposition, calling the opposition

Jan 10, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard truths by GHK Lall

(Kaieteur News) – The PPP Govt can afford to be how it is today.  Controlling.  Complacent.  Not give a damn.  After all, it has everything going in its favor.  Hence, from the ruling party’s position, if it is not causing any lost sleep, why tamper with what has worked well, almost flawlessly.  Other than for a few lone (John the Baptist) voices crying into the wind, rocking the boat, and exposing the Ali-Jagdeo-Nandlall-Singh quartet, all is fine.  Things are going so swell for the PPP Govt, it is almost as if the opposition in Guyana is in its fold, under its control.  This is the gist today’s public service.

Where is the blasted opposition?  Mr. Aubrey Norton got blasted for that, when it was his time.  So where is Dr. Terrence Campbell?  Is he still here, or is he part of the US Delta Force dropped on Caracas?  I hear that he makes lots of contributions on social media, but that can be done from Caracas or Calcutta with equal ease.  I try a more civil approach, a soothing missionary tone.  If the opposition is voiceless, then it might as well be existence less.  Oh, it is working behind the scenes.  Well, I have news for Dr. Campbell, Ms. Amanza, and Mr. Mohamed: get out from behind the scenes.  Get out from behind the cameras.  Get out from behind the podium and microphone.  To keep to the promised missionary tone, I add please and thanks.

I share the obvious.  The PPP Govt is barreling ahead, having a blast.  Good going gents.  I would, too, with oil prices depending on what Trump does next door holds the key.  Grab and get.  There’s Silica City.  GT modernization coming up.  An AI hub, a deep-water port.  My word! Are the opportunities abundant, the pickings rich!  It is good to be in govt.  Where is the opposition?  The groundwork was just laid, but I am back to Lot 1.  Don’t know about other Guyanese, but I want to see an opposition that is struggling, hustling, bawling for the people and with the people.  Mud on the shoes.  Sweat on the brow.  What happened to those people?  Yes, dem peeple.  Missionary hour is over.  The new opposition looks too much like the old opposition.  Tired.  Sluggish.  Sloppy.  Pick an issue.  Parliament.  Pick a man.  Speaker.  Why is the opposition not charging after the Speaker and shaking him lovingly?  Figuratively, of course.  If that is too much, there is something called an effigy.  Surely, the opposition knows what an effigy is, how to make one, and what to do with it.

I change gear, throttle down to a slower rev, a smoother flow.  Here’s a layup.  Cash grant.  Did somebody say cash grant?  Guilty.  Why is the taking of poor people for a ride, then mocking them, not a cause for an eruption of passion and emotion?  Wanted to say explosion of emotion, but after charging and all that business, didn’t want to give the men that I drive crazy daily to lose it, and blow me up.  The opposition has been too quiet, as if it is sunbathing by the beach, with hammock and book, and unconscious to the pain of ordinary Guyanese.

Look I am calling them out: Messrs. Norton, Campbell, Walton-Desir, and Mohamed.  If there is no opposition-authentic, courageous, sagacious, resourceful, visionary, strategic-please do a favor and let Guyanese know.  Do not do to the Guyanese people what the PPP Govt has done to them for decades without penalty.  Mislead them.  Deceive them.  Take advantage of them.  Set them up, then kick them down.  Last, make jokes about them, from doing all of that to them, and then being allowed to get away with everything.  Let me know, so I will weigh my options.

One is to form my own party.  Second, decide between staying here or leaving fulltime for Caracas, Brooklyn, or Ukraine.  On second thoughts, forget about leaving, not when there is so much PPP raw material here, and with the opposition adding to the bag of selections, as to who to take on and say to Guyanese: see, this is who they are.  I have always had a difficulty recently.  Who is PPP?  Who is PNC?  Where’s the difference?  Why is that when I see or hear one, I think of the other, am seeing double?  FYI: am studying Mohamed and WIN, and watching how that string is playing out.  Ms. Amanza gets a reprieve for now, while I check to see where she fits in this labyrinth.

(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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• Aubrey Norton, Azruddin Mohamed, GHK Lall, opposition, PPP Govt., Terrence Campbell

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