By GHK Lall- Pres Ali has had a considerable amount of work to do as a leader. The work of being a defender of his own people. Comrades and ministers who have raised questions, suspicions, condemnations. Lands. Assets. Riches. Lapses leading to what has looked less than righteous. Not quite, not anywhere near, the up and up. How did they come into so many emblems of wealth in such a short space of time? How out of nothing there is so much of so many opulent gems? Those are on the material, the tangible, side.
The president has also served as defender-in-chief of those who allegedly erred morally and grievously. Through what led to great emotional stigmas and traumas to the weak and vulnerable of Guyana. In fact, it would be closer to the wicket, to assert that Excellency Ali appointed himself to the role of serial defender-in-chief for his own. The old me would have said, he arrogated unto himself what did not belong. The old gives way to the new.
Now, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, master defender, and defender of first call and last resort, for PPP Govt notables, for PPP Govt slippers and tricksters and impostors, has a matter before him that calls for the best of him. He must make a defense. Vast lands. Prized herds. Lavish architecture. Lush arrangements.
In his favour, from his first response(s), Pres Ali has identified a line of planks that he insists stand in defense of his holdings. All fair. All square. All due to the works of fresh air, clean hands. I commend him. I would commend him more if he takes to heart what’s now recommended. For though he must defend himself, he cannot be the sole defender of himself.
First, Pres Ali should consult with his learned and honorable Attorney General, Senior Counsel, Anil Nandlall. His advice should be swift in coming. He who stands as counsel for himself has chosen a fool for counsel. Respectfully inserted into the public record, of course. The president is not on trial. Of that let me be clear. But he cannot stand in the public dock as a trier of his own facts. For the edification of the Guyanese people, I repeat the recommendation made in Demerara Waves on Sunday, July 5 (“Mr. Mohamed asserted; Pres Ali rejected, should do more”). Not an easy call. But what sound judgement and the call of circumstances compel.
Pres Ali has made his initial verbal defenses. Now, he has a duty to follow-up. He must produce his package of corroborating evidence. In all of its slips of paper. In all of its documents and statements from official and commercial sources.
In the impeccable nature of his estate and ranch story. And in its entirety. Half-measures will not be enough. Half-cocked and half of the story will not suffice. They will fuel more fury, lead to more of the uneasy. For, after all the clamors and curses, this is more than Irfaan Ali on the wire and making the news. This is about the office of the presidency of Guyana. At a time, when the world is its watching and listening audience. When the world of investors and other interested parties sit around the table as its tribunal.
Recent history has furnished evidence of Pres Ali developing a veritable cottage industry of his own. Its primary business has been defending his own stumblers. Snatching their feet from consuming fires. Then, massaging them back to some life. It has been a scarred and tainted and odious life. For a secondary servant or a dozen, that may be overlooked. But not for the supreme servant of the people of Guyana in whose hands so must has been placed, so much entrusted.
The short and long, the sweet and sour (and savaging) is that Pres Ali cannot and should not stand in his own defense. In this instance of land and billions, as alleged, such action on his part would be measured as dubious, found wanting. In the circumstances, this whole matter involving what the president has insisted is the result of years of industry and integrity belongs in the domain of open-air inspection and the most thorough dissection.
It is my humble duty to offer this counsel my commander-in-chief.
