By GHK Lall- When Guyana’s champion warrior, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo had a great opportunity to prove himself, he went missing in action, arranged some sick leave. He is buying time, hoping for the best. When my good friend Bharrat Jagdeo was presented with an opening to demonstrate his leadership manliness, he took a leave of absence. He is lying low, waiting to see how the wind will blow.
When Bharrat Jagdeo, a man of honour, had to stand up and show to the world what he is deep down inside, what he stands for, he changed into a ghostly appearance right before the eyes. He went from Bharrat the Blusterer and Bully to Howard the Coward. Cuban doctors are the source of his wiggling, his worming his path out of potential danger that is real. He stands down. He checks himself into a safe house. He waits on CARICOM.
If I had to face off against a superpower like the once mighty USA, I would too. Then again, maybe not. For, if I can’t be a man of courage, of distinctive independence, when my long-standing friends, my helpers, are being pushed against a wall, then who am I? Having fallen apart and collapsed in shambles when the demand of the hour was at its peak, then what claim can I make of being a man, a leader, an example?
Cuban doctors are not Cuban criminals. Cuban doctors did not come to Guyana (or the region) like Marisol boat people; they came on planes and in open flight, not through some stealthy creep in the night. To my brother-in-arms, Bharrat Jagdeo, I say, I plead: They are worth the defending with spirit and boldness, even more than a shade of anger, my brother.
For what’s a band of brothers, when the bonds that bind come apart under the first, flimsy assaults of a foul wind? The hawkeyed among Guyanese should have picked up that for today’s offering, I have dropped the ‘doctor’ before Jagdeo’s name. In the fields of combat, titles and honors and lofty past records do not matter. What matters is that there is a heart; the heart that stands and fight for what is right.
Cuban doctors are economic migrants. I was one, so I identify closely, deeply. Venezuelans are included. Cuban doctors have given yeoman service to the people of this nation, and for many a decade. In times of need, they have been friends in their deeds. It takes an extraordinarily gifted man or woman to forget and to turn their backs on such friends who have been present through weather fair and foul.
No one should play games and refuse to make a call on behalf of such friends. This is not a matter of ideology; it is a matter of loyalty. It is a not a situation of one’s hold on power, by finding favor with an exploiter. It is about the principle of the one position that just must be taken, and to hell with the fallout. To help a friend in distress, which one of us waits to see what the neighbors are going to do?
The first poem from Bharrat Jagdeo was that strange one: Guyana is waiting on what comes out of CARICOM. Prime Ministers Keith Rowley and Mia Mottley said to hell with it, whatever America thinks, what it does. Let us all bear in mind about how tourist dependent those countries are. Yet, the leaders of Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados could rise to the occasion.
Where is Bharrat and BG? I think I got that wrong. This is no longer BG (British Guyana), it is now AG (America’s Guyana). Bharrat Jagdeo has manifested how ferocious he can be when locals stand in his way. He’s Bharrat the Blusterer, Bharrat the Bluffer, and Bharrat the Bullyboy. Today, he is pleased to be Howard the Coward. CARICOM is depended upon; CARICOM is the way forward.
More recently, he came out with another golden jewel dug up from his treasure house of such gems: ‘the PPP does not do diplomacy in public.’ Gosh and by golly! He is even talking like an American these days. We don’t do this or let’s do that, as in let’s do lunch one of these days. His answer was in relation to US visa developments, (is there any other kind that matters?).
Be ready to give it up, Bharrat-ji. Stand for something in Guyana and show America that this country is not its kept woman. That is, available for a fling, to be a doormat on which America wipes its feet. If Bharrat Jagdeo cannot be for Cubans, who can he ever be for, if not only himself and his interests, his lusts for power, and to which America has the keys? If he can’t be for Cuban doctors, I question how much he can be for Guyanese.
From Bharrat the Brave Man to Bharrat the Bailout Man. This is who Guyanese have. Sadly, embarrassingly, this is who Cuban doctors have in their corner, as their defender. The most pathetic defender Jagdeo is proving to be.
