By GHK Lall- The results of a recent poll were carried in the Village Voice News edition of March 24, 2025 (“Poll: Guyanese want fresh leadership at national and coalition levels). If I were Messrs. Ali, Jagdeo, and Norton, I would seek a new line of work. Instead of whose poll, or its methodology, I extract the extraordinary from it. Reality.
As heard near and far. Remove oil and Guyanese may have been the same old way. But with oil today, many Guyanese don’t want to hear, care to know, about Burnham and Jagan. They care about clean governance, uncompromised leaders and, naturally, oil money. Their share. Me, too.
Drs. Ali and Jagdeo should be honest with themselves: a bridge built there, and a bookshelf of promises are seen as a bag of booze. Cheap booze. Guyanese nah drink dah PPP Government leadership Kool-Aid nah moh. Guyanese want real cash, and a real cleanup in government.
The public service is under sharp scrutiny, looks terrible from the conclusions. Oftentimes, I have said it (implored and kneeled) before President Ali and co-President Jagdeo: when citizens can’t buy food that’s dangerous. Rulers cursed, reviled. Only diehards and those benefiting today trust them.
Numerous Guyanese are left out of that formula perfected by Ali and Jagdeo. Even when deh gee de peepe a li’l money, they force dem to crawl pun de knees or ovah waan anadder to collect de cash. This is more than about a gutting cost-of-living environment and reality.
It is about an environment where PPP insiders are having salmon and champagne, while ordinary citizens are compelled to eat shrimp shells and drink bush tea. A bad deal for them is damaging for Ali and Jagdeo. All of that unexplained wealth enjoyed by PPP cabals, while regular Guyanese live by their fingernails.
Like the Merrymen of Barbados sang: ‘tell me weh yuh geh dah monee from.’ Corruption, cost-of-living, oil cash contortions, all now stand as curses on the PPP Government. The poll is saying that the party is over, the money music must stop.
It is not flowing to the people, and that is upsetting them. Matters are so dreadful in Guyana that even a poll has to be secret, no public ownership. It does say a mouthful about freedoms and fears here.
Then, there is Opposition Leader Norton. The poll inflicted a beating on Ali and Jagdeo. He got a worse beating. If accurate, the electoral writing is on the wall for him. More out than in, doesn’t count. I’m not doing any poll, but mention certain names in this country, and insults, curses, outrage, disgust all but drowns me.
When I mention three names, I get three hundred kicks. Men and women, Indian Guyanese and African Guyanese, young and old all dish out their licks. I rush to get out of the way. One doesn’t need to be scientific nor attuned to statistics. Only be honest, speak mind. Spleens are vented, voices rage. Such is the dripping, overwhelming level of anger and disgust.
Do Guyanese really need a poll to confirm their worst interpretations of the skewed environment, their unwinnable hand, who is responsible for their conditions and their prospects?
In a nonoil economy, the major political parties and their leaders may have gotten away with skating, when Guyanese are groaning from distress. Tribal loyalty, cult leader control, and the constant willingness to bash opponents (plus look the other way for friends) all would not have mattered.
Politicians and their comrades would still have benefited, but citizens only complain, move along. In an oil powered economy, however, that standard and practice shatter under pressure. In sum, most ruling politicians and their cronies are too greedy.
The grabbing and self-enriching are now at industrial scale strength. They don’t know what to do with themselves, nor what to do with expensive projects, so that Guyanese get maximum value for their dollars spent.
Budget and oil dollars squandered or misspent are dollars not coming to them, to relieve their economic weaknesses. Where the feeling before was that all are in the same hardship boat, with a fortunate few exempt, today the general belief is that the elites are cheating the poor man, the youth man, the old man, with the women of Guyana. They have to face seller, children, and bareness of homes.
Hence, citizens long to see and hear a leader that is inspiring, one to trust. Because there is confidence that he or she will deliver a better life for them now. Repeat: now. another repetition: there is too much money around for something for everybody.
Everybody must be seen as somebody in the Guyana of now. There are no nobodies. President Ali talks a storm. The man is emptier than a midnight graveyard. A bluffer’s delightful escapade.
VP Jagdeo is now so consumed by power he fools himself into believing that he can mold the environment to suit his purposes. The Mussolini syndrome. OL Norton is getting a rough wakeup call re how some Guyanese think of him. A forgotten presence, a shell, a mystery man.
I close this out. The Guyanese voter seeks a leader that gives them hope, one that justifies placing confidence in them. The territory is uncooperative, circumstances hard, the prospects unflattering. One unhappy population of statistically-rich people but situationally destitute citizen. The search for a true leader continues. How I see it, call it.
