By GHK Lall- A solid editorial on Thursday “GPL and presidential bluster” (KW, Sept 17-26). Probing, revealing. It hit the nail on the head. Also, the editorial hit the head (figuratively, naturally) where he deserves to be hit. For what is Excellency Ali if not a blusterer and bamboozler? A world-class one, which he should find endearing.
It could be electricity, the Wales Gas-to-Energy, or Guyana’s sacred oil patrimony and there is Excellency Ali, an uber blusterer and bamboozler. He has no duty to extend an apology to the Guyanese people for the Dark Ages (literally) medieval tortures they endure, when the lights go off and the generators go on. From electricity deficiency and abuse to rising noise nuisance trajectory and the same abuse, but of a different kind. More on this in the pipeline.
From GPL blusterer to Wales gas-to-energy bamboozler. Pres Ali displays his glowing credentials more conspicuously. Billions by the gallons for the GPL -blackouts. Billions for the Wales project -and where are Guyanese energy consumers? Waiting on the next instance of blustering and bamboozling from their dear, beloved president.
Wales startup drifts. Dr. Ali drifts. Guyanese drifts into deeper hazes. If the president can try to bluster and bamboozle his way, rather pitifully, on the international scene (Al-Jazeera), then it’s nothing to be anxious about, when domestic blackout woes point to that “rampant mismanagement” question posted by Mr. Neave Barker.
I think that because Dr. Ali has been allowed to get away with his blusterer and bamboozler practices for so long, he concluded that both are hallmarks of good leadership. Which leader can bluster his way with “review and renegotiate” all contracts, then be permitted to weave a bamboozler’s halo liquidating that commitment, through “sanctity of contract?”
For what is “sanctity of contract” if not a white man’s compact with nonwhite people? One which can be to tilted to the creator’s advantage, when appropriate. Or abandoned, at will, when the circumstances require. Like Christianity, sanctity of contract has its uses. In both cases, they have been used to enslave, control, and manipulate weaker, frightened, parties.
In Guyana, and with Exxon’s grim countenance haunting the gates, sanctity of contract has become the equivalent of the first harbor of blusterers and bamboozlers. Dissect Pres Ali carefully. Instead of fighting through the challenges of leadership (electricity, gas-to-energy, and oil patrimony, among others), Pres Ali constant strategy has been to fight the Guyanese people, and fight against their interests. A national leader to be followed, or a pathological blusterer and bamboozler to be humored, is the puzzle before Guyanese of every walk of life, all political complexions.
Further, I think any cursory study of Pres Ali would note a natural blusterer and bamboozler. Those are second skins to him. The boaster with the swagger. All that’s missing is a top hat and a gold walking stick overlaid with diamond sprinkles. Those are the props on which superficial men fall back on, when the substances that could make them different are trapped in supply chain and connectivity difficulties.
Even if the ingredients were available, connectivity would be elusive. When only one way is known, then that’s the result. Only that is lived, gives comfort. Can a leopard change its stripes? No matter how its spots have been laundered and pressed into stripes, the original colors and characteristics remain.
Some learning and exposures usually help to hide the blusterer and bamboozler inside. Access to power, breaks down that barrier, with both breaking out and racing out to the loss of those within range. Isn’t this what Guyanese have observed in openmouthed disbelief? Last, I think that there are elements of a bullying nature present. In looking at hostile schoolrooms and schoolyards, it could be that Guyanese are looking in the wrong direction. Meanwhile, the GPL limps, creeps. Blustering and bamboozling provide the power.
