Who’s really safe?

Mar 01, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall

(Kaieteur News) – Who’s really safe?  The question formed an Al-Jazeera headline: who’s really safe in India and Israel?  What has happened in Gaza, continues to happen on a lesser scale, with lower visibility, lesser publicity.  Is any Palestinian safe there in what passes for a home, probably some shattered hovel still standing shakily in some corner?

Is any resident of Kashmir really safe, where a particular section of India’s religious demographic has come under constant fire?  Is any subcontinent Indian really safe, if he or she were to speak, or write, or take dissonant positions, on the extremes of Hindutva and Narendra?  In both countries, the appalling record is of the overwhelming power of the State marshaled and unleashed against those described as dissidents, undesirables, among other inspiring labels.  In Guyana, their equivalents are christened ‘naysayers’ and other terms of endearment by talking heads of the all-powerful, all controlling State.

Having said all of the above, and as brutal as the conditions are for the oppressed in India (a democracy) and Israel (a theocratic-democratic entity run by a militant mystic), today’s public offering is less about those two once highly admired countries.  It is more of, it is all about, Guyana.  Who’s realty safe in Guyana?  The Guyana of today, of the PPP, of what is heralded as a democracy, a country where the rule of law is at a premium?  I say None!  No one!  And None!

Sure, there is freedom to speak one’s mind in Guyana.  But better be wise enough to speak only of what pleases Drs. Ali and Jagdeo.  Go anywhere near to the opposite, and be ready to watch on autopsy on self.  There is the Constitution and the law, all who are in favor say.  I say for whom?  I identify those courageous Guyanese to whom the inviolable protections of the Constitution and the law do not extend, do not apply, do not cover.  Isn’t that a fact?  Are they really safe in Guyana?

It is a question I place gently before Pres. Ali, Vice Pres. Jagdeo, Prime Minister Phillips, Attorney General Nandlall, and Top Cop Hicken, as well as the head of the CID and Cyberspace Unit.  Here’s a first fact: a female journalist in Guyana is reviled online by a PPP entity, and when reported to the Guyana Police Force, she is runaround at the beginning, then treated as though she’s the lawbreaker.  Her crime was straight reportage, what her profession demands.  Aside -it would have been inspiring to read, or hear, from luminous PPP Govt female ministers expressing their outrage, discomfort, that their own Cabinet colleague(s) could be behind such a revolting descent into lawlessness.  Where is the law and safety (and peace of mind) for that female Guyanese then, Mr. Pres, Dr. VP, Mr. Commissioner?

Second fact for the fine men named above, the champions of this democracy.  What are my crimes, Drs. Ali, Jagdeo, Nandlall and company?  What crimes necessitate surveillance, the government engaging in bearing false witness, and broadly violating my rights, my freedoms, and my safety?  How about Policy Forum Guyana?  Stabroek News?  And many others.  Perhaps, PM Phillips, or Commissioner Hicken, given their upbringing, their probable beliefs, may be moved by the spirit to break their silence, share small truths?  If the men of law are too constrained by life’s twisted passage and the weight of baggage overhead to speak; then the men of God should still have some of the deity left in them.  Mr. Nandlall, not an ordinary Nandlall, but the Nandlall, Guyana’s attorney general, may discover that there’s some defense that he can muster, cluster, offer.  What sayest thou, Mr. Nandlall, effusive and exuberant man of law, and warrior for codes of honour, of which most of his comrades either are ignorant of, or not care a damn about?

Who is really safe in Guyana?  Excellency Ali in one of his rushing torrents of rhetoric guaranteed the safety of Exxon and its investment.  Now that’s a president for the times!  But what of the safety of the Guyanese people, Mr. President?  The safety of their patrimony?  A guarantee for their prosperity delayed and diluted, all but discarded?  Who’s really safe in Guyana, other than for the PPP’s own, their interests, their rights?  I think it should be for all, and through all seasons, especially those found too inconvenient, discomforting.  Messrs. Ali, Jagdeo, Phillips, Nandlall, Hicken, Guyanese are waiting for answers.  The world is watching.

(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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