By GHK Lall- Who is right? The Guyana Police Force, through its Financial Crimes arm (SOCU), or We Invest in Nationhood’s Azruddin Mohamed? SOCU alleges an illegal forex operation, Mohamed rebuts: no such activity going on. How do I see this latest dustup between the WIN man and the men from the PPP trying to dust him off? What else is it, can it be? This is where I stand.
Maybe the old Azruddin Mohamed in his former life could have probably hovered on the fringes, if not edged into many areas of commerce in this lovely, free enterprise, free-for-all PPP Govt country. But the new and improved Azruddin Mohamed gives pause, prompts measured pondering over these trials and tribulations that follow in swarming succession.
He would have to be a total slacker, a man derisive of the law, bent on embracing the weaknesses of an utter fool. To do what SOCU hangs over his head. No question that the PPP Govt has a hanging party in mind for him. First, the posse does the groundwork. There was SOCU with charges pending. Like ah did for Bharrat Jagdeo, Nigel Dharmalall, and sundry PPP ministers, the benefit of the doubt is gifted to Mr. Mohamed.
After all, when none other than the immaculate, omnipotent Mohamed Irfaan Ali (Dr.) could hold Azruddin Mohamed as his first friend, then I am not fit to assert that the man is a lawbreaker, a rule violator. When the First Citizen of Guyana, in one of his first official moves, could cherish the intimate company of Azruddin Mohamed in the latter’s bulletproof war charger, that says a world about the clasp of brotherhood. England’s King Richard in the heat of battle uttered his famous war cry: take the bloody kingdom; just get me a damn horse. He could be pardoned, for there was a leader ready to give all, to last breath, to go down gallantly.
In Guyana, the immaculacy of the presidency was surrendered for a ride in an armored Brinks machine. The going hasn’t been as smooth, since. Or as friendly. Hostility replaces hearty handshakes. Disowning of a bosom friend came before. I know not the man. No! that wasn’t Peter about his friend from Galilee. It is now Ali, Jagdeo, Nandlall, and all the big, beautiful fellows (and princesses) in the PPP, who turn their backs on the man from Lombard Street and other exotic locales.
The Police via SOCU marched into Lombard Street. There’s dirt there. Dig it up, toss on, Mohamed, then bury him in the hole excavated. This is bigger than the Police. A government out to get a man. The power of the State mobilized and airdropped into his space. If America can do that for Maduro, then Guyana can do the same to get Mohamed. I should be the last Guyanese saying a word about Mohamed. He gave a lot of people here a lot of money and a lot of his comforting friendship.
Where are they today? Why am I going near to any of this SOCU, Lombard Street, parliament, and other Mohamed related development? My head is hard. I also like to see a man get a fair shake. It is free of charge, be it for Mohamed Irfaan Ali or Azruddin Mohamed. I don’t cotton to bullying, with men hiding behind the camouflage of the Police.
Mohabir Anil Nandalall knows it better than I can ever do. Misuse of the assets of the State is a violation of the law, the corruption of it. I recall such storied names out of the past, as Solzhenitsyn and Sakharov, and how they outlasted the might of Lavrenti Beria and Joey Stalin. I counsel PPP men of the law, of democracy’s nobilities: Azruddin Mohamed has already been made into a hero by the PPP. The PPP continues barreling down the road it has chosen, and it could make him into a saint. Ah, the mysteries and dichotomies of this country.
Azruddin Mohamed was once befriended by presidents, vice presidents, and ministers of vice (plus virtues). They craved his company. They took his cash. They proudly and smilingly took pictures with him. Now they turn on him, seek to tear him apart. The irony in all this is that a man who has never met him, spoken with him, has to stand and say: deal straight with him. I am GHK Lall.
