By GHK Lall- Often, I feel sorry for Excellency Ali. When he tries to bluff and bluster his way out of tight corners, pity shoves sorrow aside. There is the US$2 billion Wales gas project (GTE), and suddenly it is Ali’s baby. How come? Sure, as el grande jefe, he has ultimate responsibility, but where is the main man, the mastermind, behind the US$2 billion Wales GTE circus?
What else can it be termed, and how else that great Guyanese Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, gas doctor, and now doctor without borders? Don’t hide near a creaky, former Prince of Wales, Dr. Jagdeo. Tell the Guyanese people about the Wales GTE project: how a contractor with Lindsayca’s record snares that role (who arranged, who gave final approval)? How much it will cost local taxpayers by the end, if it is ever successfully completed. And, at what price for electricity to Guyanese consumers when this is all said and done? If ever, that terminal is reached.
No one spoke more of the Wales GTE than Boss Bharrat. No one was allowed to seize centerstage. Not Winston Brassington, a senior caretaker, who seems to be a constant around these Olympian project monuments in Guyana. Around these big dollar enterprises of Chief Policymaker, Dr. Jagdeo. Not even Excellency Ali was allowed to get in an occasional word sideways. So, where is Jagdeo, and why has he abandoned his brainchild, his precious US$2 billion baby? Pres. Ali is trying valiantly, but the more he shuffles and mumbles, the more he makes matters worse.
The Wales GTE is Dr. Jagdeo’s project, so he should not be allowed to slip away, sneak out and waste time shaking hands with over-the-hill kings and demagogic national leaders. Bhai Jagdeo sold the Wales GTE to Guyanese as the best thing since candles, and coal-pots. What has he delivered instead? Welcome to Guyana, the GPL, and Turkish powerboats. Somehow, there’s a vision of cesspits and a certain fraternity. Blackout-plagued Guyanese struggle to appreciate the value obtained for their billions (in any currency, save for the rupee).
A boisterously and raucously confident Bharrat Jagdeo sold, resold, and oversold the merits of the Wales GTE miracle-in-waiting to energy-famished Guyanese consumers. He never stopped selling his Wales masterpiece. He cannot disappear now, and leave both project and the people suspended between another ill-fated Jagdeo affair, and another hope dashed, another huge bill to come. Which national leader in his or her right mind would tie bundle (linkup) with a Lindsayca?
Which strong-willed and uncontrollable political godfather would leave poor Winston and the much poorer Pres Ali to fetch a basket without a bottom to bathe a flock of ducks? There’s Lindsayca, and no amount of water can cleanse it, a quarter billion more or none. There’s a group of disillusioned, dejected Guyanese, who steel themselves to deal with another Jagdeo disappointment, abandonment. And, there’s the taxpayer who may not know yet, but the squeeze for the Wales loan (and others) are coming, must be repaid.
I give Jagdeo a nudge: have the courage, sir. Manifest the decency, chief. Face the Guyanese people, and say this is where the GTE project really is, and this is what Guyanese are going to get, be left saddled with, must carry. The decent thing for him to do is say ‘I’m sorry. I failed.’ Don’t lateral that to Excellency Ali. Most days he is so busy, so numb, that he can’t figure out where his head is, and why his jaws are so heavy. As though he had a shot of dental Novocain. Guyanese need a shot in the arm and, with respect, it isn’t Winston Brassington’s role to be the Wales GTE interpreter, confessor, and fixer.
All those were monopolised by Dr. Jagdeo. He owns the Wales GTE, for better or worse. All US$2 billion (or whatever) of it. Now Lindsayca has the audacity to want a quarter billion more. Dr. Jagdeo must be the one standing before Guyanese and sharing what is the new arrangement, the related visions, involved in that overnight quarter billion more. Standup and face the music, Bharrat. Be a Big Man and give the people the goods. Authentic ones. Remember: purity always conquers profanity and perversity.
