By GHK Lall- I must ask. Is Pres Ali losing it? I hope Pres Ali hasn’t completely lost his senses? He’s trying too hard, ending up in uncharted waters. Troubled waters. Hence, I come like Simon and Garfunkel with my bridge to help my esteemed president over troubled waters he himself agitated.
Accepted that oil has gone to his head. Now water also may have flooded his head. Too much of anything is good for nothing. There he was in the Upper Mazaruni around dangerous rapids, distressed Guyanese, and scrambling desperately. Like a drowning man out of options. Fits him well, doesn’t it?
God bless the pastor who opened the temple door for Excellency Ali. Indeed, Guyana now has special types of pastor nowadays. New Age, new wave, pastors. They have strangely ideas about profoundness and righteousness. Of how forcing light and darkness into the same cup displeases the heavens. When Ali needed a lifeline, he got a lifeboat.
A high note he struck: “We are here to serve.” To ensure nothing was lost in translation, repeated: “We are here to serve.” Even the tone deaf has no excuse. Perhaps, Mr. Ali repeated himself to reinforce himself. I applaud, ‘we are here to serve’, but those five words must be recognized for their substance. Rubbish and hogwash. Political tripe. Lip gloss. A port in a storm.
The usual from desperate leaders needing napkins to cover their frailties, fallacies. People who have a history of being served need no reminders, no forced roundups, no last minute gatherings to boost failures. As though the occasion was either the Second Coming or Judgment Day. Maybe I am being too hasty. For those with water at elbows and eyeballs, it seems like the wrath of god and Judgment Day.
When leaders exhaust, squander, all other choices, they suddenly discover ‘servanthood.’ Snake oil I say. A cure for cancer miraculously found. To my fellow Guyanese: beware of gift bearers. What could they be up to this time?
Pres Ali went higher, furnished answer. Fellow citizens, I put bluntly, caustically: Excellency Ali went too far. ‘We are doing this by divine…by authority.’ A long pause while he groped in clearly unfamiliar territory for the right word, grasped divine “authority.” I thought Pres Ali was going to say ‘we are doing this by the divine right of kings.’ Since Dr. Ali in his grace went that route, he opened the door for me to enter tremblingly.
I’m awed to be in his company. Reminder: Thou shalt not call the name of the Lord thy god in vain. In 21st century English: Don’t use the name of God for dubious purposes. Politics is in that category. I proceed further. Didn’t Pres Ali don requisite attire and addressed the faithful in a mosque? From divine right to probably commander of the faithful. Let’s get real here, folks. Since Excellency Ali is comfortable invoking divine authority as part of his orb and scepter, then commander of the faithful must be part of his program.
Another worrying thought gnaws at consciousness, won’t let go. Did Ali the Honorable, Ali the majestic, now Ali the mystic make that most fatal of Koranic errors? Think, brethren, think; and pray. ‘There is no god but god.’ Final. Absolute. Unequivocal. Nonnegotiable. The president paid homage to that sacred teaching in a masjid.
But there he was casually in a largely non-Muslim (dar al-harb) gathering, pacifying with and pontificating about “divine…authority.” Which god is this one, i.e., divine authority, that he invokes? Revisit my assertion that the president is trying too hard to be seen as credible, only to create a live, dangerous minefield for himself. The president has the right, up to a point, to mess with many things, but the things of God are off-limits. Crass politicking is a no-no. NO!
The president knows better. His nerves got the better of him. My problem is when State (presidents) and the Church get too intimate. The latter suffers. A bigger one surfaces when politicians use god to dig themselves out of a pit.
