By GHK Lall-Misfortune came via a social media clip of Pres Ali in operation at his May 22, 2026 press conference. Misfortune because of the principal participant’s acrobatics. There was some good, though, in that press engagement. Guyanese had firsthand exposure of the man leading this country. One question unnerved him.
The unscripted Ali was an unready Ali. Fumbling. Mumbling. Bumbling. Stumbling even when unmoving. He exhibited uncertainty and unease, which showed in his unsteadiness of words, his pawing the air nervously. The bluster that’s now inseparable from Dr. Ali collapsed like a pricked balloon. The tiniest of pinpricks it took. Here’s a snapshot of his response to a simple question. This time, he didn’t go around the world. He never got going.
He jammed around with ‘the first part of the question…and the second part of the question’. It was obvious that Guyana’s leader was groping around in a dark place, not knowing where he was, and what to do. Or, how to extract himself out of a question that he feared answering.
One related to meeting the Hon. Leader of the Opposition, the besieged and bruised, Mr. Azzruddin Mohamed. Despite my years, this one is unprecedented, larded with delicious irony. Have never experienced a situation where one honourable leader is (not interested) afraid of meeting with another honorable leader also of Guyana’s sacred soil.
If two honourable men, once best buddies, close working partners, who got insurmountable issues resolved with phone texts, cannot meet, then what hope that other matters could get executed? A fine state of affairs, of national leadership, this is.
When an Executive President with virtually unlimited powers is so jittery, so morbidly fearful, around a simple inquiry, then I think he is a lost cause in neon lights. Not quite capable of carrying the burden of Guyana’s highest office. Presidents with mojo do not shift or shrink from simple questions. What could be easier than one about meeting with the Honourable Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Mohamed, a man well-known to Pres Ali (probably too well-known), and one that knows him well due to considerable past dealings? Not interested is a non-answer.
Often, I am reminded that Pres Ali is an honourable man. On busy days, when preoccupied, I let that slip past. Makes no sense, not good use of time, to contest every battle, to engage every citizen given to excess. To prove what point? To gain what kind of new friends, maybe even lose some of the handful that remains. It is better to leave an unhearing brother, a leader, to show what he is made of, how well he holds up under scrutiny. What the president did show at his Friday’s press trapeze was how ill-suited he is for his present role. Unless his hand is held, with grooming to complement, he is a man lost.
As a painful reminder, Dr. Ali, then Mr. Ali, didn’t do inspiringly well as a minister. It helps explain his bubbly drudgery, his steady irrationality, in the role of Guyana’s Chief Minister. What Guyanese are absorbing re the question of an Ali-Mohamed meet is the confluence of bad judgements, bad errors, bad advisers, bad standards, and bad choices. What were good times before reflect today’s bad times that Dr. Ali makes such heavy weather of navigating.
‘The first part of the question…’the second part of the question’ is of a man fleeing from his friends, buying time, seeking any exit, desperately searching to save himself. He failed. An online picture blazing across cyberspace bares everything. A warm, cozy, just-folks-gathering between one Mohamed and another Mohamed. Howzzat that for a power meal between bankroller and thanksgiver!
Having absorbed, Guyanese should draw deeply from this well. In 16 years, Chancellor Angela Markel never deceived the German people, never had a scandal in her government, never tarnished her name. It might mean something to Guyanese. Then again, it may not.
