By GHK Lall – It falls on me to disagree with the Hon. Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Aubrey Norton. Respectfully disagree, shouldn’t have to be added. I lay my cards on the public table.
Mr. Norton first said the following. “In recent weeks we have seen PPP thuggery and hooliganism in full display in Regions Two and Six.” I am in full agreement with that statement. He continued later, “We must see the behaviour of (Vice President Bharrat) Jagdeo and (President) Irfaan Ali as two desperate people who believe it is the end of the government they lead. All the evidence suggests that they are afraid.” Whoever wants to disagree with any of that should know that they have no company in this little corner. President Ali hides behind America and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s strongman rhetoric. It is Excellency Ali’s way of pretending that he is not afraid, and he is all macho from his Texas Stetson down to his US marshal boots. Dr. Blusterer is now a good ole American gunfighter straight out of its mythical Southwest. Like that myth about heroes and scoundrels, Pres. Ali has fallen in love with his own self-made legend: he is now an American Guyanese warrior, as though that may buy him some leeway in the looming elections. How long will the PPP and Ali depend wholly and solely on US strength, that is the question? How much will American power make possible for him and the other bluffer cum brawler, Vice President Jagdeo in the upcoming elections? Is this the last roll of the loaded PPP dice?
For the longest while, I have rung that bell: VP Jagdeo is a desperate man. One whose pants are on fire. One, if he did possess some cover at the top, that also would have been on fire. Take a look and spend a moment listening to Dr. Jagdeo. It is of a man who has swallowed his own medicine, but who doesn’t like it, so bitter it is. A man who pretends to know so much, but yet can’t say much about anything. A leader who makes a brash case for being about clean stewardship and clean governance, and all he could do is show a clean pair of heels, as he runs from questions, hides behind a wall of thugs, heavies, and hardcases. A desperate man denies, dodges, ducks to elude the walls closing in on him. A desperate man also uses anger and aggression as his armor. It falls apart chunk by chunk, with clatter after clatter. Wales gas-to-something. Exxon audit fandangoes. And before that, Exxon’s predator’s ball with tens of billions in expenses. They all have about hot air coming from Jagdeo and exist in the thin air that he now practically monopolizes. In summary, Guyana’s two supremely gifted leaders (don’t ask what, please, and spoil the tranquil atmosphere) are too full of themselves, and full of something else. To help the slow of hearing, it is a word that begins with s and ends with t. Neither an X-ray nor a CT scan is needed for that enlightenment, so far they are gone, and so obvious their wiles and guiles that no longer fool any Guyanese. Even the mentally scanty laugh at them and their antics. Desperate, they are; and it shows. It shows when the attack hounds are let loose on the western coast and to the East not too distant from the Dutch people.
I agree with OL Norton on what he said before, which I parlayed into a portrait of their perversities. So rank that days old exposed fish cannot compete with the smell emerging from the PPP Government and gang. Where I part company with Mr. Norton is when he said this: “Their behaviour confirms that they know what is the order- their time is up!” The first part has its contexts and merits. “Their time is up!” is where I go my own way. For the edification of all Guyanese, of whom there are hundreds of thousands in Brooklyn and Queens, there was that harrowing situation involving a Haitian immigrant by the name of Abner Louima. Man! did the City of New York do a number on him and under the banner of “Its Guiliani time!” Guiliani time, PPP time, they usually last a long time before their time is really up.
Recall the damage that Mr. Law and Order, Mayor Rudy Guiliani inflicted on New Yorkers before he went to heaven. Now check the damage that Dr. Accountability and Transparency (Ali) has done, then extend the scrutiny to Dr. Oil and Gas (Jagdeo) and the wars he has declared on honest citizens. The time of both of them should have been up many seasons ago. Alas! They both now depend on two levers to carry them along; and extend their stays. Americans and PPP cultivated hooligans. The former holds much sway over the disposition of matters at the national level here. The latter have their uses, and are the tip of the iceberg. There is an army of phantoms behind the hooligans, some are official, all are of the criminal variety. When a ruling party is forced to activate its hooligans, it has crossed the point of no return. It still has some shelf life; how much time will depend more on the Yankees and less on Guyanese voters. How I see it, call it.
