Wales – Part II – Drs. Ali, Phillips, Jagdeo – rise n’ shine

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

Hard Truths by GHK Lall

(Kaieteur News) – Pres. Ali tells anyone who would listen that he is all about transparency. He now has a clean shot at proving it. The Wales gas project is dangled before his eyes. All US$2 billion of it, and whatever the final amount that it ends up to be. Dr. Ali has a chance at showing the Guyanese people how transparent he is.

Not through mouthpieces, nor the syrups of propagandists whose first duty is to make fools of themselves to earn their dinnerplate. Pres. Ali must clear the air himself about the US$2 billion and what this nation has got for its money to date. No silky speechwriter’s product, but a president who is striving for credibility, standing and speaking for himself. It is part of the job he craved so badly; an inseparable aspect of the compact he and the PPP Government have with citizens. If no one else owns this project, by default, it is Irfaan Ali’s, goes with the territory. Say something and save thyself, Mr. President. Guyana is watching, waiting, holding its collective breath. US$2 billion is big money for the people of this country. It stands to reason that the biggest man in this burg is the fittest and most proper person to present the transparency that has been so elusive. Not only on Wales and a gas plant and power plant. But on the entire PPP Government plant. What is happening? Where do matters congeal? What to expect for 2026, almost halfway through? Thanks in advance, Excellency Ali.

Prime Minister Phillips, former army chief is up next. Neither broadside nor salvo is in mind with what follows. A former army chief is never a former officer and gentleman, never even with the most miniscule hint of conduct unbecoming. I urge him to shed his political colours and don his military dress, epaulettes, ribbons, braids, and decorations all. I think Ret’d Brigadier General, Mark Anthony Phillips, has it in him to do better. Sorry, but neither Shakespeare nor Caesar today. Only the hard truths of that same US$2 billion Wales gas affair. Did the Yanks get paid? Okay, not the full amount, but a portion, with the remainder accepted as coming. The docs say so. So, there was no need, Prime Minister, to wiggle, waggle, and gargle. Choking occurs. After the spectacle created. A Prime Minister isn’t a cheerleader. A Prime Minister is a truth-seeker and a truth-teller. If PM Phillips disagrees, here is his golden moment to bore holes in that construction. A first vice president (hopefully, not lived literally) and a first soldier of the barracks and dusty plains should not be a man that allows himself to be pushed around. Nor pushed into the line of fire. Nor pushed to take fusillades of lead for others who keep their heads down and out of harm’s way. All well and good with all for one and one for all, Prime Minister, but the stench, sir, the taint, mon general. Let others carry their own ‘dutty’ water, energy portfolio freely acknowledged.

I finally arrive at Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo: oilman, gasman, policy man, Wales man. Dr. Jagdeo insisted, persisted, that the Wales GTE is viable, credible, producible. Aggressive and abusive, he was. Wales is his project, from his fertile mental laboratory. Dr. Jagdeo must take the lead, not shun the limelight that he once loved, seized. Take responsibility, Mr. Jagdeo. Wales is a perfect example of what can go wrong will go wrong, said Irishman Murphy. If it started wrong (it did) then it will only go down (it has). What sayeth thou, Master Jagdeo? Calling Dr. Jagdeo: where art thou? Give the people something for their US$2 billion. A good time to observe a clever warrior at work. When to expect a working, delivering Wales gas project, doctor? At what estimated last cost, skipper? How about a head or two to roll, mister? I nominate Bharrat Jagdeo’s first. For now, Winston has my blessings, prayers.

Wales. Whenever Wales surfaces, Tom Jones reappears. Echoes of ‘Delilah’ heard. Why, why, why Delilah… The lyrics confirm hard truths: this country’s in a bad place, the worst imaginable.

(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, Transparency, Wales gas project

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