The gift that I give to Nigel Dharamlall

Mar 24, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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(Kaieteur News) – I may be barking up the wrong tree.  It’s the story lived, with no fear of continuing.  This time, a flicker of success may illuminate the dark.  And, if it doesn’t, then trying is what’s left.  To Mr. Nigel Dharamlall of the PPP, of Guyana, I speak.  With Nigel Dharamlall, the man, and brother that is not a friend, I walk.  If it wasn’t he that went after attorney, Ms. Melinda Janki, then my unqualified apology is extended.

Troubles came before, the real ingredients of which are not known.  The system worked wonders for Mr. Dharmalall.  Since a new lease was granted, approaching life differently, managing instincts better, should have taken over.  Backsliding should be past and gone, avoided with the strongest spirit, though flesh can be weak.  Such must be the new religion.  In American: a speeding, avenging bullet was sidestepped.  In Guyanese: seize the redemptive moment.  Stay away from certain company, avoid temptations that deposit into pitfalls.  Turn a new leaf, begin a fresh journey.

Going after Ms. Melinda Janki is not of a man who, during his time of national ordeal, I recalled said: and this too shall pass.  Since that has passed somehow, now there should be determined efforts on your part to conquer raging impulses to wound others.  Distance from dipping toe in the swamp, from plunging into the deep with reckless headlong abandon.  When a Nigel Dharmalall, PPP Central Executive luminary can rear back for extra leverage to lash out at a woman of emboldened steel in this country, what’s the reward?  A moment of applause?  A flurry of ‘likes?’  A sense of good feeling?  Not worth it, sir.  It’s held that nothing ventured, nothing gained.  Having ventured Mr. Dharamlall, I share this probably unwanted courtesy about what is gained.  Some PPP women I know are repulsed.  Some PPP men convulsed.

Just as vital, President Ali could be stained in the eyes of watchers.  He can’t afford to be seen as a leader that tolerates such conduct, standards, from a ranking PPP member, any in his party’s senior membership.  For if he is unable, or unwilling, to call in Nigel Dharamlall and manifest his displeasure at what dishonors all Guyanese women, then what kind of president is Mohamed Irfaan Ali?  I quietly submit to Excellency Ali that when insults are hurled at one Guyanese woman, then all the women in the PPP, in the local environment, are undressed by that action.  When they are afraid to speak.  When they are fearful of breaking ranks.  When they represent the thunder of streaking, dazzling, warming, words, and yet possess nothing but the whimper of a cracked bell.  One that sounds dreadfully, thereafter hangs pitifully.

Separately, I understand that Nigel Dharmalall has been empowered by the powers in the PPP hierarchy.  There must be a limit, though.  He must refrain from diving into raw sewage face first, seemingly liking it.  For such is distasteful, definitely revolting.  Then there are those other times, those other actions that are despicable, because of the utter vileness of their content.  Before Mr. Dharamlall, this offering is placed.  You, sir, are already a star of immense proportions.  One from which the US ambassador to Guyana, the British High Commissioner in Guyana, and the resident Secretary General of CARICOM may feel better if they have less to do with it.  To avoid its rays, recoil from any touch reaching for them.  It should not escape the attention of the keen-eyed and level-minded in Guyana that all three dignitaries are of the female gender.  Ms. Janki is not an unknown.  So why go to those lengths to make yourself known again in the same light that darkens so much of Guyana?  What prevails within PPP gatherings, where authority has been given to wield a big stick, has to stay right there.  Whichever the woman there that is comfortable taking those expressions of political affection in stride, they should know that they pave the way for other women to be maligned first, runover next.  Wherever they are, whoever they are.

I leave Mr. Dharamlall with this: when you speak, you speak for PPP women.  Though complacent, I doubt that they wish to be seen in this way.  Start fresh, fellow citizen.  Be a man that all women would be proud of, hail as a champion.

(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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• GHK Lall, Ms Melinda Janki, Nigel Dharamlall, PPP

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