By GHK Lall- So often Guyanese have heard riot acts read, it’s numbing. Like a police baton to the nose. Commissioners of Police have read them to subordinates. The incomparable Pres Ali has read riot acts. Now riot acts have resurfaced, this time about the CEO of Guysuco. Since reading riot acts is so widespread in Guyana, several conclusions solidify.
First, Top Cops, the national political top dog, and GuySuCo topman must have their own versions of what a riot act is. It’s what nowhere close to real riot acts. Second, Guyana must be a very riotous country, since reading of riots acts is now so prevalent. Third, the various groups targeted by riot acts don’t take them seriously. And, fourth, riots acts have lost sting since they are seen as part of a game, fine examples of a charade.
Take the big example of Pres Ali. Often when I read his sayings on laying down the law (such as it is), I come fearfully close to thinking that he represents a one-man riot in action. Boisterous and raucous; but he is reading riot acts. Funny country, this Guyana; except it is so disturbing that nothing is funny about he or his riot acts. Recall his early Christmas riot act read to sluggish and mulish contractors, ministers, and permanent secretaries.
Imagine this national leader in the time of carols and sleighbells reading the riot act to a captive, hapless audience in November 2024. Get the job done. Or government will kickout those who can’t deliver. In predawn hours, a riotous hailstorm, a brutal joke played on the Guyanese people. Attendees knew their part in the game. Hang head low. Keep mouth shut. Look properly sorry. Promise to do part. Get it done by the end of January 2025.
Laff story or sick story? Parade or charade? What grade to give Pres Ali? For his Nov 2024 riot act scything that rubbed a supposedly sharp blade across the necks of failing contractors, failing subject ministers and failing permanent secretaries? My apologies, Dr. Excellency, but there’s no choice but to give a failing grade for a riot act that fell flat on its bum. If that riot act had introduced peace and calm (justice for Guyanese taxpayers), then there would be no need for Pres Ali, the terror of contractors and ministers, to repeat himself. Namely, to rerun that same riot act motion picture. Except this time with an audience of REOs, ministers and permanent secretaries over a year and half later in May 2026.
The sham of shoving around REOs and shoving out the unlucky would not have been necessary. No head of state, not even one deserving of vats of pity as Excellency Ali, should have to go over old riot act grounds. Though not highlighted, the crux of the reshuffle is procurement and delivery. Go back to November 2024 at 05:30hrs, and Ali in full riot act mode. What is being done with the people money?
When will handpicked party cronies get the message, produce? Self-help has its benefits, but never can be at the riotous levels practiced. The president took a page out of past TOP Cops and the current one, by coming armed to the party. Commissioners in riot act mindset usually walk with enforcement commanders. Dr. Ali walked with Dr. Jagdeo. Let me be frank, folks. Put those two Nobel Prize winners in the same space, and what to expect, if not mayhem?
What the people want is what Excellencies Ali and Jagdeo give to them. Entertainment. Comic relief. Get the job done. Or else! Do right by the people. Or there will have to be yet another of these riot act exhibitions to demonstrate presidential gravity and seriousness. What a leader! What a country! What a farce! The PPP Govt should register the patent for reading riot acts.
