Who in Guyana would have the audacity to say so? Who in the PPP Government would publicly say that the “UN Security Council is the most undemocratic organ in the United Nations?” It was Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett. Right off the bat, I assert this: Ambassador Rodrigues-Birkett spoke not for herself, but the PPP Government. She spoke for Guyana’s champion of human rights, democratic rights, and all the rights of colored peoples conceivable, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo.
There is gratitude that the Guyana ambassador showed to the whole world a rare moment of the transparency that Excellency Ali boasted and bluffed about from the inception. Though not a UN interpreter, I translate for Guyanese and Americans: knack gat knack back. It all started when Guyana’s prodigal son decided to leave the wilderness behind and reenter the political fray. His name is Nigel Hughes. What turbulence he has created in PPP land! What startling developments in the PPP, what unprecedented storms in Guyana’s chief policymaker, Bharrat Jagdeo’s head?
With overnight swiftness, Dr. Jagdeo has gone from a reviler of the civil to a born again, true believer. In all the things that little conscientious Guyanese have been saying, writing, presenting publicly all along, Jagdeo is now as one with them. Where to start is a challenge for a geriatric guerilla presence like me. Though no Ho Chi Minh, I must start somewhere. In doing so, I remind Guyanese that the Vietnamese translation of his name is He Who Enlightens. A pat on the back is healthy, occasionally.
Fact 1: Dr. Jagdeo never had a problem, nary a word of disagreement with Exxon, anything that it did, whatever it did. Then he did. He has had one hiccup, one hangup, one flareup since C.A. Nigel Hughes had the temerity to raise his hand and say a word: back. I am back. Though taken aback, Jagdeo still burned at a low temp while he figured out his decision points and points of attack. Then, Mr. Alistair Routledge stepped forward and changed all that serenity that Dr. Jagdeo cultivated at such great personal cost.
Fact 2: Exxon doesn’t have a conflict of interest with Nigel Hughes’s presidential run. The gates of hell blew open. Hell, hath no fury like a woman scorned. No woman could have, will ever, match the furies unleashed from within the manly Bharrat Jagdeo. In American, ‘you gat to be kidding me -no conflict? No damned conflict, Mr. Routledge. We (I) shall see about that, sir, see who the boss is around here.’ It’s not perfect but will suffice. What will Jagdeo do? How will he teach Exxon and America a lesson?
For make no mistake, the Machiavellian in the aptly titled Vice President saw through the smokescreen and who is really behind Mr. Routledge’s adventure into Guyana’s muddy political waters. There is no domestic dispute in this country, even at its utterly incomprehensible worst, that can match Guyana’s domestic politics. But there was Mister Alistair with his “no conflict of interest” jewel.
Fact 3: message and retaliation from the chief policymaker were not long in coming. Public consultations will be attended by government officers to hear what Exxon is telling the Guyanese people on the seventh oil project, Hammerhead. In shark terms, somebody is going to get bludgeoned, and it is not I. The incredible choice of words that Bharrat Jagdeo settled upon to rock Exxon’s boat was to hear what “kinds of stupidness” the company could be telling the people. Was that Guyana’s Vice President Jagdeo who said that, or the likes of GHK Lall (please pardon the third person reference) who wrote that, said so? Me! I ain’t sehin nutin’, I jus watchin and listenin’. When people like me said things like that, either Jagdeo or his PPP goons lashed and bashed. Well, mouth open and story fall out…. Round one in this war goes to Jagdeo for the time being.
Fact 4: now the chief policymaker came out with another singular streak of independence: the seventh oil project, Hammerhead, has to go through the process(es). What will that process now be, considering all the latest developments? Jagdeo kicked Guyanese who have been calling for these oil projects (I have) to be used as bargaining chips or defensive weapons, and now it dawned upon the big local oilman what he must do.
Will processes be adjusted? That is, Jagdeo walking tall, carrying a big and different project approval stick? That’s my guy Jagdeo. Nigel Hughes, look at what you went and do…. Now I have a conflict. The VP continue taakin like dis and ah comin out and vote fuh he. Sorry, brother Nigel. Exxon may not have a conflict of interest with Nigel Hughes, but Jagdeo definitely has a problem-a serious one, an existential one-with Exxon. But Dr. Jagdeo was now starting to flex his muscles. He went for a still bigger fish, the biggest one.
Fact 5: Jagdeo has been tormented by a string of developments from OFAC, JFK, and then even his buddies in Exxon. The CIA man, the FBI people, the NYPD folks, and is all these damn Yankees everywhere he turns, whatever he does, wherever he wants to go. It is enough to send a totally sane man stir crazy. I had warned him: American interests trump old bargains. Who laffed then? Who is lashing out now?
Fact 6: there was Excellency Rodrigues-Birkett: Security Council most undemocratic of all UN badman, big stick children. Forget about the UN, that’s Jagdeo sticking his finger in America’s eye. Y’all messin wid me and this crappy no conflict of interest and I will mess wid y’all. if anyone had said to me that C.A. Nigel Hughes would be responsible for Bharrat Jagdeo’s current hysterias, where he dashes Exxon to pieces, and now even the good ole USA. This is my final warning to Guyana’s chief policymaker: change policies. Or, as Puerto Rican superstar, Carlos Santana appealed in song: yuh gat to change your…ways.” The missing word is on me. Whom the Gods wish to destroy, they gave oil first. Then America next. I could share an encyclopedia on the latter.
Fact 7: though not a fact until borne out by circumstances, will the PPP Government’s (Jagdeo’s) assault on the UN’s hallowed Security Council have a ripple effect? Sisters and brothers in Guyana, think broadly, please: the World Court.
Last, Jagdeo being Jagdeo, his sleeve has pockets. I notice Vladimir adding to his fleet of warships. Methinks, some, if not all of them are heading in the general northwest area of this hood. Summation: now that Bharrat Jagdeo is on the outs with America is he about to exchange American imperialism for Russian imperialism. Am keeping an eye on the Chinese version of that, too. Something is smelling in Robb Street, State Street (Main Street), and Prado-ville Avenue. Good luck, Guyana.
