From Jagdeo to Ali; from bad to worse

Aug 30, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

Hard Truths by GHK Lall

(Kaieteur News) – Never thought I would ever reach this place. Bring back Bharrat Jagdeo. Never say never! It was inconceivable that there could be a worse leader than former president Jagdeo. I warned him seven years ago. A monster created. Would come back to haunt. It has.

Peel back the layers. The former president has his wrinkles; they run deep. But, for every wrinkle that’s visible and speaks its own telling language, there’s Pres. Ali with his warts. Extraordinary, aren’t they? Puts Dr. Jagdeo down, reduces him to a beginner. The vice president’s circle of friends and family is small and tight. Known for its penetration in government’s affairs. The president has an army that marches in broad formation, eats off the environment, sucks the moisture from the atmosphere. The media is overworked from reporting its advances high and low, many spheres local.

Crack the hard shell that’s Dr. Jagdeo. There’s a leader that gives a sometimes decent, often too hostile, reception to questions about issues that trouble Guyanese. He does try to rationalise his positions, to some extent. When it’s convenient. Come across as reasonable. In contrast, Pres. Ali’s standard practice is to ram home his position, and leave Guyanese to speculate on what has overtaken him. Apparently, he sees himself as the voice of God, possessing the disposition of an angel, a fount of wisdom that tolerates no contradiction. His reward is a population-increasingly agitated and impatient segments of it – that sees in their president a figure of mystery, one with an intriguing history, and someone with whom they wouldn’t want to be at the border, should the temperature get intolerably warmer there. Pres. Ali could care less. A man who sees he is of the people and for the people, yet one with a deep deficit. He hasn’t the faintest idea of how the Guyanese people manage from day-to-day, actually exist beyond the cameras and microphones; his echoes.

For his part, Excellency Jagdeo was a leader who mended the occasional fence, left some alone. Pres. Ali never saw a fence that he didn’t want to kick down and runover the people who ask: sir, what happened to the clothes? Undoubtedly, the vice president compiled political smarts, street smarts, and the smartness of public restraint. Pres. Ali would have none of that, appointing himself to be the father of all that is smart. A man who knows what he is doing. He alone. No one else has such insights, dare mutter anything that’s different, that confronts his self-promotions and self-congratulations. There’s a price for that, some deteriorations, which I deduce to be one of the unfortunate attachments that accompany power. Too often, power goes to the head of some, introduces high levels of turbulence that can’t be avoided. Can’t be managed. Can’t be concealed. On his worst day, take a look at Dr. Jagdeo. He still had something that held him in check, that cautioned ‘don’t go there.’

Regrettably, the same cannot be said of Pres. Ali. A leader that revels in excess. Having stretched himself so thin, the hollowness within lights up in the manner of a full body scan. One taken with contrast; and with images displayed in brilliant colour. In the early days, when he was largely unknown, many Guyanese had many good things to say of him, to expect of him. When the environment became overloaded from the tramping feet and weight of Pres. Ali’s army, people changed. The only ones who cheer him now in public, are those who collect an envelope for their time and effort. Excellency Jagdeo is still going, and wherever he goes, he is sure to draw a small crowd.

In going, I give Guyanese this message. Pres. Ali has youth on his side. His difficulty is that people now see through him (including a horrified Jagdeo). He has run out of time.

(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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