2026 Midyear Report -Pt II

By GHK Lall- A new year. The beginning of a second consecutive term. It was hailed as the dawning of a new era. Supposedly, that third rail in politics that electrifies towards glorious leadership and governance deeds. In surveying the landscape, there are indications of what will be going forward.

A big, boisterous national budget. One bawdier than past blasts. Just bursting with dollars: $1.5 trillion plus. A million in today’s PPP Guyana is now ‘keep-the-change’ money. Perhaps, one tennis roll that doesn’t have to be taken on ‘trust’. Credit. At the rate that these national budgets are spiraling, with a trillion comfortably scaled, a billion could soon go the way of a million. That is, small change and fine bangamary money.

Is Guyana heading the way of World War I Germany? Despite all the government’s comforting talk of inflation under control? Guyanese poor don’t know about inflation. They know starvation. Another big budget lauded. But there’s that dark side of Oil Guyana that the oil-enriched PPP Govt shuns talking about. Amidst ballooning daily oil production, there’s the darkness of deep, widespread destitution.

The government and its paid cheerleaders (private sector compensated differently) were ecstatic with the record-breaking budget in February. Four months later, it was time to ask for what poor workers call a ‘raise’, some overtime help, that li’l extra. Officially, Guyanese savor impressive, innocent sounding names: Financial Paper and Supplementary Budget. An anemic needs a supplement, that boost to shake off the lethargy to get him going. However tentatively. Four months after the big party held a bigger party over Guyana’s biggest budget (yet), it was in need of the energy from a $55 billion supplement. A real supplement, or a PPP Govt on destructive steroids? Whatever it was or is, the supplements (budgets) will have to keep coming.

In the first half of 2026, the PPP Govt boasted about Guyana’s towering, inspiring democracy. The Americans, British, Canadians, and Europeans had to huff and puff to get parliament reconvened. Speaker Manzoor Nadir couldn’t find the keys, or his nerves. Minister Gail Texeira couldn’t find her voice or feet; couldn’t find in time the right lines in her script. The PPP’s Dr. Cheddi Jagan had developed a cottage industry around walking out of parliament. Today’s Jagan’s PPP descendants have created an industry of stopping Guyanese elected from walking into parliament. From Down with America! it is Thank God for America. And BC& E, of course. The claim is that Guyana’s self-sufficient. Oil. The reality is that Guyana under the yoke of the PPP is self-destructive.

Some youngster, reportedly closely linked to PPP royalty, allegedly damaged property belonging to Guyanese. The palace turned off the lights, went quiet. The police followed suit. Into this vacuum, stepped Pres Ali, after donning his now well-worn Minister of Defense robes to deliver the protective: why the noise? There’s no issue. Responsible people, mature parenting, and sober judgment are at work.

Pres Ali is better off being a pope. One who could see the devil, then forget and forgive the details. If this is rule of law and respect for law and order, I’m better off with the subcontinent’s Modi or North Korea’s Kim. Guyanese would be, too. Anil Nandlall should share insights on this chapter of rule of law, and his president’s practice of it, in his next Facebook trash talking session.

Right next door, Venezuelans closed out the first half of 2026 in tragic, wrenching despair, when a series of devastating earthquakes struck. Guyanese rightly extended words of harmony and humanity. I do the same for my fellow Guyanese living right here. They live with daily political and environmental earthquakes that rock them, then ravage them. A piteous presidency. A putrid set of political hustlers and scavengers. After each local earthquake, the PPP sniffs around to see what more it can grab for itself. The good news is that the first half is over; the past is past. The bad news is that there are six months left. Therein lie opportunities for many more tragedies and exploitations of regular Guyanese.

One last thing: to my fellow American and their fellow travelers: a joyous Fourth.