By GHK Lall- I often give unsolicited advice to President Ali; a stream of spittle flowed. Do good deeds, the blows rain. One piece of counsel was that there are times to maintain silence than open one’s mouth and prove everybody right. The president didn’t listen, so now he is in a pickle; more caustic soda than vinegar. I have also cautioned Excellency Ali that no one has ever gone wrong doing right.
So, now the nation is engrossed in what may resembles a small storm in a teacup. Terrence Campbell for prime ministerial candidate for the PPP five years ago. It is not a teacup for me, because it entangles the president, and the man claiming the invitation to consider, and the simple matter of truth. Who is telling it? Who is not?
Dr. Campbell said that he is done talking about the prime minister candidacy, the conversations that he had with Ali on that specific issue. Excellency Ali’s position was as sharp as a barrel of smelling salts, with much gagging resulting: “I have no further comment on the issue.” There it was, flat as a zinc sheet and just as inviting as a bed.
The two fine Guyanese embroiled in who made what overture, and who said what, may be ready to call it a day on this PM development. It is their right. My inquiring mind asks if they had another chat, a gentleman’s agreement to let the issue drop. I, however, am not ready to let it go down so flabbily. In boxing terms, it resembles taking a dive to me; many Guyanese understand what that means.
For clarity, there is more than the issue at hand. PM candidature is small potatoes when compared to the larger matter of truth. The last thing that I need is a head of state who does not have space in his head for truth. To be balanced, the next thing that lies adjacent to that presidential position of mine is that I do not take lightly is for a citizen, especially one of the standing of Dr. Campbell, if there is any stretching or twisting of the facts and surroundings of the situation.
Personally, it could be anything of national significance, none of which has to be necessarily as big as being invited (or not) to be a PM candidate in Guyana. For if there is little (or no) truth in us, then what is there? Who are we? The questions take on a greater intensity, a deeper profoundness, the higher one goes. The presidency must be represented by men and women who are sticklers for truth, fully devoted to it, regardless of the prices for doing so.
I pose a hypothetical question to all citizens: so, what if an invitation was extended by Dr. Irfaan Ali to Dr. Terrence Campbell to consider being the PPP PM candidate? What is the big problem? Why does it not have a ring with sobering echoes? I assert so when Guyanese know that it makes strategic sense for that much looked-out for combination of a big Indian head and a not quite-as-big African head, i.e., for president and prime minister respectively. The reverse holds similar appeal. The bottom line is that local political culture, and the electorate, reacts more favorably at such optics.
Whether or not Ali did engage in such a conversation, with that specific invitation mentioned, is up in the air currently. It looks like it is going to remain hanging there indefinitely. I read that there is some hint of evidence that the invitation was made. It could clear the air about which one of the two Guyanese has his lines right, and his memory in the right place.
My concern is that President Ali suffers from a serious disadvantage. He has failed to honour his word solemnly given; his immovable commitment made under the bright light of the public gaze has split apart under the pressures of today, and power realities of now. In two words -election success. I take the opportunity to remind all Guyanese who can read and still have their ears in satisfactory working order: “review and renegotiate all contracts.”
Many thanks for that leadership thunderclap that still shakes the foundations of this country to this day. The contradiction today is that the same President Irfaan Ali now disowns the duty that is inseparable from what I take as a sacred oath given. His newly embraced sworn duty is “sanctity of contract.” When I absorb this, I recall a saying from the medieval age, which I give to my fellow Guyanese as a free gift: “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
President Ali spoke to truth and with vigour about what had to be done before relative to the Exxon oil contract. Sorry, Mr. Routledge, but whether he likes it or not, Exxon gets dragged into these things because of what was said before (by President Ali) and what is hidden from today (by President Ali). Bitten once with sanctity of contract, I am twice shy by his distancing from the substance of the Terrence Campbell prime ministerial candidate. “No further comment…” has its own truths. Somebody backed off, stood down. I sense a truce in effect.
