By GHK Lall- Pres. Ali lives in a world of rhetoric. Empty, silky, creamy rhetoric. Guyanese of special genius crawled, dragged themselves, to declare that as excellence in leadership. Blessings, to these patriots. Patriots or parakeets, that’s the puzzle. Personally speaking, if Dr. Ali were to live, deliver, on one in every 200 words, he would be more than an acclaimed performer in Guyana’s universe. He would be a true leader, a liberator. His first challenge is to liberate himself.
From what is frivolous, surges part his lips. From what confirms the fantasist that he is, and the fantasy island that’s his playground. On Arrival Day (Indian), Excellency Ali arrived. The glittering finery of long strings of golden words, laden with promise, yet so leaden in the life that they live the moment he drifts to his next string of words. Unity. One Guyana.
When sections of the population are treated differently-squeezed and left out, sickened and blackened, condemned and castaway-then One Guyana is not a joke. No such relief. One Guyana is urinating and spitting on Guyanese sent to the back of the room, told to sit down and shut up. One Guyana is a crude attempt at abrasive comedy.
For what else can it be, when Guyanese that had arrived before, and those who were here before everyone else, are dropkicked to the existence of second-class citizens, maybe even the lot of legal but unwanted presences. I hear One Guyana and unity, and surely no one can be so unconscious, so conscienceless, that there’s no hearing the mocking echoes that ricochet with taunting, haunting potency.
Security for some people (the crème de la crème) and their companions. No such energy for others, especially those who venture to say, Mr. Pres: too many things wrong, too much at a standstill, with what is said so firmly, but dies on the vine. It astonishes that the president (You, Excellency) can speak so casually of One Guyana, when even a post mortem sends wounded, grieving Guyanese hurrying in pursuit of some fleeing leaf of truth on foreign shore.
It destroys whatever the president asserts about One Guyana when there’s a murder in his birthplace, and a closely guarded State secret results. As though someone is protecting long relationships, suppressing that violent news from reaching the people. I wonder if Pres Ali or his people could shed some light on that murder. And why the proceedings quietly, efficiently, simplified to manslaughter just had to be held outside the purview of the Fourth Estate.
Speaking of the Fourth Estate, there is (or was) Stabroek News. Indian Arrival Day is about the freedom to move. Where is the freedom to speak, Dr. President? To think, publish, stand. Different from what any leader, any government, thinks, and insists that that’s how it must be. This is how unity becomes a leadership obscenity. Pres. Ali has had great opportunity to be a unifier. His record is that of a divider. Policies. Decisions. What treats one people one way, and others another.
Out of the torture chamber that is Excellency Ali’s domain has emerged this fear of citizens speaking, differing, even chastising. Apparently, this Ali doesn’t know that world. When a leader has right on his side, confidence flourishes. He welcomes dissection and tough discussion. What country, what ruling party, speaks of democracy and national unity, but is perpetually on the hunt for enemies, to silence dissenting voices?
This is how Pres. Ali reengineers himself into caricatures. Frankly, I don’t think reengineering was needed. One Guyana has to be, must be, about listening to the Black Man, Beige Man, Brown Man and honestly asking: 1) what am I doing wrong; 2) how can I make you feel counted; and 3) where else must I improve. This Oriental, Arabian (and American) potentate mentality serves ill, stains ingloriously, and skewers disastrously. Try a new way, milord Ali. Restart One Guyana, overhaul unity.
