GEORGETOWN, Guyana – In what some social media commentators have described as a rambling and defensive social media address, President Irfaan Ali has launched a scathing attack on Opposition Leader Azruddin Mohamed, but his words have triggered more alarm than reassurance. While attempting to discredit the man he has labeled a criminal, the President inadvertently exposed a government under siege, alluding to “security implications,” recordings, and attempted blackmail .
The President’s speech, ostensibly meant to clarify the existence of his farm—quickly devolved into a series of ad hominem attacks against Mr. Mohamed, whom he accused of murder, smuggling, and kidnapping. Yet, the irony of a sitting President calling Mr. Mohamed a criminal is not lost on the Guyanese public, who are acutely aware that the U.S. sanctions against Mohamed are not the “discovery” the President claims; they are a matter of public record and one with which this government was willing to live until the opposition leader positioned himself as a political threat to powers that be within the PPP organization .
President Ali’s attempt to distance himself from Mr. Mohamed by emphasizing that sanctions came from the U.S., and not from his government, rings hollow. The President conveniently forgets that the PPP government and Azruddin Mohamed were once bedfellows. A man who is now denounced as the “nature of criminality” was once a major funder and backer of the PPP. The questions that the President fails to answer are the ones that truly matter:
1. Where was the government’s “conscience” when Mohamed was funding the party?
2. If he is such a menace, why was he courted as a backer?
President Ali’s claim to “credibility and integrity” while standing on a platform of past associations with a now-disgraced businessman borders on the absurd.
Perhaps the most chilling moment in the President’s address was his acknowledgment of a threat against him. He claimed to have received a text message stating, “If you don’t end all this madness, I will.” He further alleges that a recording was sent to him, purportedly of a conversation with Mr. Mohamed.
This leads to a singular, terrifying conclusion: Can the President of Guyana truly be blackmailed by a man he describes as a criminal?
President Ali’s refusal to elaborate on these “security implications” is a dereliction of duty. If the security of the nation is compromised by a private citizen with a recording, the President must act, not hide behind vague allusions.
President Ali insisted that the exaggeration of the farm’s size was “the death of the lie.” However, the public sees a President so rattled by a political rival that he feels the need to “go live” from (wherever) to defend its existence. This is not the behavior of a leader; it is the behavior of a man with something to hide.
The people of Guyana are left with more questions than answers.
– If Azruddin Mohamed is indeed the criminal President Ali claims he is, why did the government ever accept his backing?
– If the President is being blackmailed, why does he not release the recording and pursue legal action?
– If the allegations are lies, why is he so desperate to prove he is “not like him”?
We are not just looking at a feud between two powerful men. We are looking at a government that may be complicit in the very criminality it now claims to expose. The sooner President Ali treats the “security implications” with the seriousness they deserve, the sooner the people of Guyana can have faith in their leadership.
The “madness” is not over. It has just begun to unravel.
