Pres. Irfaan Ali in Belize

Feb 07, 2026 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali has a reputation for inconsistency, hypocrisy, and inadequacy. He has cultivated the art of saying the right things before the right audiences to inspire the right reactions. An approving nod followed by a round of applause, represent the stuff on which he thrives. On the other hand, his follow-up actions have to be searched for like the proverbial needle in a haystack. The usual lack of success is what results.

Before a joint session of the Belizean parliament, President Ali urged small states to unify in the fight against crime, and work to overcome trade barriers. No question that those are good calls from Guyana’s president, and we give him a hand. But this unity of which he stood for so boldly, this combating of transnational crime that’s his priority, how is it that he is seen as so wanting right here when developments inside Guyana require that same unity from him?

Unite against crime, said the president. But there it was that seniors in the Guyana Police Force are under scrutiny or sanctions, or some pall of doubt, for alleged crimes that crosses borders, impact the lives of many for the worst. It is not just a matter of senior police officers finding themselves in hot water, but how President Ali’s PPPC government is clueless, and seemingly unable to shed that condition. Fact is that it took the considerable efforts of US law enforcement agencies, working in combination, to unearth and deal a blow to a massive drug shipment out of Guyana’s interior. There was such a lack of confidence in Guyana’s leading law enforcement body that US government counterparts bypassed it.

The fear that leaks could have scuttled what turned out to be a major operation that yielded a harvest of illegal drugs. If the US was compelled to that sort of protective action, due to palpable security concerns, then which small state is going to be so brave, so reckless, as to heed President Ali’s call and unite with Guyana in the fight against transnational crime? When Guyana moves to correct its own weaknesses first, then his message could gain some traction beyond polite nods and pro forma applause. When Guyana’s PPPC Government can prove that it is a genuine partner in the war against transnational crime, it is probable that some small states may trust this country, and see it as worth uniting with to combat crime. Transnational crime that is a cancer on the regional environment, and that other cancer: government officials that collude with criminals, but are coddled by the PPPC Government.

It was interesting that the president also urged for the removal of trade barriers, open economies. Again, we find no fault with the president’s plea, actually endorse it. But we will be remiss if we did not remind President Ali of the barriers that his government has erected to stifle Guyanese and democracy, through different means. How could there be a barrier to accessing information, when the law says that such must be accessible, and made available?

The president cannot pretend to ignore the barriers erected by one of his government’s handpicked appointees, by stepping aside and saying that is not his business. The government led by Irfaan Ali chose a Speaker for the National Assembly of Guyana, so the president cannot feign a hands-off posture, while barrier after barrier was erected to stonewall and frustrate the selection of an Opposition Leader. The latest emerging from Guyana’s parliament, while ironically Guyana’s president was addressing the Belizean parliament, was that Guyanese journalists were running into a new barrier that limited the number of them who can enter Guyana’s parliament to report on this year’s budget debate.

The removal of trade barriers leading to more open economies is a sound call. President Ali has a duty to fix his own house first. He must use the power vested in his office to remove barriers to access to information. To remove media barriers that inhibit media coverage of the budget debate. To remove barriers that coverup long unsolved crimes, including the murders of Monica Reece, Courtney Crum-Ewing, and Ricardo Fagundes. Then he could progress to address transnational crimes and trade barriers.

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Belize, Editorial, hypocrisy, inconsistency, Irfaan Ali

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Pres. Irfaan Ali in Belize

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