By Timothy Hendricks- In the wake of the September 1, 2025, General and Regional Elections, where the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) entrenched its grip amid whispers of irregularities and the intoxicating haze of oil revenues, our nation stands at a precipice. Foreign conglomerates feast on our subterranean treasures, while the common folk – the teacher in Parika, the labourer in Lethem, the mother in Sophia – grapple with soaring costs and unfulfilled promises. It is in this crucible of discontent that we implore Roysdale Forde, S.C., to seize the nationalist banner with unbridled fervour, deploying his formidable legal and political arsenal not merely for partisan gains, but for the sovereign upliftment of all Guyana.
Roysdale, you have etched your name in the annals of our democratic saga. We recall, only too well, your valour in the electoral fray of yesteryears – from the 1997 battles under Rex McKay’s tutelage, where you unmasked the specter of fraud, to the protracted 2020 saga that tested the very soul of our Constitution. Your forensic prowess laid bare the machinations that sought to subvert the people’s will, standing as a bulwark against authoritarian overreach.
And in this fateful 2025 contest, though the Aubrey Norton-led APNU+AFC coalition fell short against the PPP’s juggernaut, your endorsement of the Norton-Fernandes ticket resonated with a call for unity and renewal. Yet, as the dust settles on Irfaan Ali’s re-election – a victory tallied amid claims of voter suppression, corruption and media bias – we ask that you: transcend the dark shadows of defeat and embrace a bolder nationalist ethos.
Your reservoir of knowledge, forged in the hallowed halls of Norman Manley Law School and tempered by barristerial triumphs in the United Kingdom, is a national patrimony too precious to be confined to opposition benches or party infighting. As Shadow Attorney General, your critiques have pierced the veil of governmental opacity – decrying the mass police promotions in August 2025 as politicised maneuvers, lambasting the hiring of Bangladeshi nurses as “political mischief” that sidelines our own daughters in April 2024 rhetoric that echoes still. In recent missives, like your October 16, 2025, column urging the opposition to “rise to protect democracy,” you evoke the tides of power shifting with oil fortunes, warning of a landscape where democratic erosion threatens our very foundations.
We applaud these salvos, Roysdale, but the people demand more: let your expertise fuel a nationalist renaissance that benefits not only the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R) but the entirety of Guyanese society!
Envision a Guyana under your nationalist guidance – a land where racial divides, perpetuated by the PPP’s cynical “one Guyana” facade, dissolve in the forge of true equity. You have decried tribalism within your own ranks, advocating for a PNC/R purged of division, as in your pre-congress calls to “regroup, refocus, and rebuild” in April 2024. Post-election, with the PPP claiming majorities in eight districts and swelling budgets that favour cronies over citizens, your voice must amplify this vision.
Harness your constitutional mastery to challenge electoral flaws, litigate for transparent oil revenue distribution, and advocate for press freedoms as you did in September 2025, aligning with Reporters Without Borders’ plea to President Ali. Your Freemasonic principles of education and ethics could mentor a new cadre of patriots, transforming the opposition from a fractured echo into a nationalist phalanx.
We are aware of the scars of internal strife – the 2024 PNC Congress rigmarole, where concerns over transparency led to withdrawals by you and Amanza Walton-Desir, the disbandment of the North American Region, the whispers of novice status hurled by rivals. Yet, in January 2025, you affirmed your active role in PNC/R affairs, declaring party unity alongside Norton. Noble fidelity, but nationalism knows no party bounds; it is the people’s eternal flame!
Serve wherever opportunity beckons – as opposition vanguard drafting anti-corruption bills, as civic leader mobilising against foreign exploitation in our Essequibo, or even as an independent arbiter in national dialogues. Redirect your acumen to reclaim local content in oil deals, fortify our borders against Venezuelan encroachments, and ensure that trillion-dollar windfalls irrigate the parched fields of Black Bush Polder, not just Exxon coffers.
The perils post-2025 are stark: budgets balloon while squatter settlements in Agricola flood with neglect, foreign workers supplant locals in healthcare, and democratic institutions buckle under executive overreach. You, who exposed governmental smears lacking evidence, who critiqued regressive taxes crushing the middle class – your thunder could rally the dispossessed. In your September 12, 2025, reflection on the elections as a “watershed moment” in our democratic odyssey, you hinted at renewal. We urge: make it nationalist renewal, bridging Burnham’s cooperative legacy to a future where every Guyanese – Afro, Indo, Amerindian – shares in prosperity.
