The Quiet Rewiring of Power and Purses in the Regions

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The latest round of Regional Executive Officer (REO) appointments should not be viewed as a routine administrative reshuffle.

The latest round of Regional Executive Officer (REO) appointments should not be viewed as a routine administrative reshuffle. It reflects something deeper, more structural, and far more consequential: the quiet reconfiguration of access to state power and, by extension, state resources.

At first glance, the changes may appear procedural—nine new appointees, one retained, a fresh slate to “serve the people.” But in governance, personnel is policy. Who occupies these positions matters not just for administration, but for influence, decision-making, and control over the flow of public funds at the regional level.

REOs are not ceremonial figures. They sit at the intersection of budgeting, procurement, project execution, and oversight. They are, in many respects, the operational gatekeepers of regional development. To change them en masse is to reset the internal architecture through which public resources are managed and distributed.

It is within this context that the concerns raised by Member of Parliament Ganesh Mahipaul take on added weight. The issue is not merely whether individuals are qualified on paper, but whether the process and patterns of their selection inspire confidence in independence, meritocracy, and accountability.

When appointments draw heavily from within government ministries, and when questions arise about personal or familial proximity to political power, it inevitably fuels a perception—fair or not—that these roles are being aligned with political interests rather than insulated from them.
And perception, in governance, is not a trivial matter. It shapes public trust, influences compliance, and determines whether citizens believe that resources are being allocated fairly or funneled through networks of influence.

Guyana is no stranger to this dynamic. Across administrations and decades, there has been a persistent tension between public office as a vehicle for service and public office as a gateway to opportunity—sometimes legitimate, sometimes questionable. The concern is not always blatant wrongdoing; often it is the normalization of systems where access, loyalty, and proximity quietly shape outcomes.

What makes the current moment particularly sensitive is the scale of resources now flowing through the state. With expanding revenues and ambitious development agendas, regional offices are no longer peripheral—they are central nodes in the management of significant financial activity.
That raises a critical question: are these appointments strengthening institutional integrity, or are they consolidating networks of control around the distribution of that wealth?

No evidence has been publicly presented to suggest misconduct by the newly appointed REOs, and it is important to state that clearly. They deserve the opportunity to perform and to demonstrate their commitment to the public good.
But governance is not built on hope alone. It is built on systems that minimize risk, ensure transparency, and withstand scrutiny regardless of who occupies office.

Right now, what is lacking is not just reassurance, but clarity. What criteria guided these selections? What safeguards are in place to prevent conflicts of interest? How will performance be monitored, and by whom? And crucially, how insulated are these officers from political direction when it comes to the allocation of contracts, projects, and resources?

Absent clear answers, the reshuffle risks being interpreted not as renewal, but as redistribution—not necessarily of wealth in the crude sense, but of influence over how and where that wealth flows.
That is where vigilance becomes essential. The role of the opposition, the media, and civil society is not to assume guilt, but to interrogate power. To watch closely. To ask uncomfortable questions early, rather than explanations later.

If these appointments are grounded in merit and integrity, transparency will vindicate them. If not, opacity will expose them.
In the end, the issue is bigger than any single appointee. It is about whether regional governance in Guyana evolves into a system that serves citizens equitably—or one that quietly rewards proximity to power.

That is the test now before us.

BY: Staff— Writer

𝙏𝙝𝙚 592 𝙂𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙣-𝙏𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙝 , 𝘼𝙘𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙗𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮, 𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙄𝙣 𝙂𝙪𝙮𝙖𝙣𝙖 𝘼𝙣𝙙 𝘾𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙗𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙣 𝙋𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙨.— ✦—

Phased Reform, Permanent Damage: How Guyana’s Constitution Is Being Held Hostage

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A Response to AG Nandlall views on Electoral Reform

Part 1 of 2

Attorney General Anil Nandlall can speak of “phases” and commissions all day, but the truth is in plain sight: Guyana’s democratic soul is being steadily eroded by prolonged delays, executive overreach, and the systematic neutering of constitutional institutions. The government’s posture is not one of reform; it is one of strategic delay and gradual consolidation of power. The longer that posture persists, the deeper the damage becomes — not merely institutional, but civilisational. A nation cannot build a durable democracy on a constitution held under duress by the very branch of government that constitution is meant to restrain.

The Architecture of Delay

The Constitutional Reform Commission was established with fanfare, staffed with formidable legal minds, endowed — as commentator Christopher Ram has rightly noted — with a “big fat budget” and the country’s most respected legal minds, including Justice Carl Singh, the Head of the Bar Association, the Attorney-General, Senior Counsel, and prominent attorneys-at-law. By September 2025 — with a general election having just passed — the Commission had produced no periodic report to the National Assembly, no published timetable, no quantified deliverables. Both major parties promised constitutional reform in their manifestos of 2015, repeated the pledge in 2020, and again in 2025.

That is a decade of promises dissolving into what Ram rightly called “a spectacle of delay and inertia” that insults the intelligence of the people.
This is not incompetence. Incompetence is random. What Guyana is witnessing is patterned, predictable, and purposeful. The Commission’s silence mirrors the executive’s comfort. A commission that reports to a Parliament that the executive controls, on a timeline the executive does not publish, is not an instrument of reform — it is an instrument of managed postponement.

The Constitutional Pathology:

A 1980 Document in a 2026 Crisis
To understand the constraints on reform, one must first understand what is being reformed — and why the current occupant of the Office of the President has every structural incentive to resist meaningful change. Guyana’s 1980 Constitution, brought into being under Forbes Burnham through what critics have long described as a rigged referendum, was explicitly designed to centralise power. It centralises power, weakens parliamentary oversight, and denies real agency to the Guyanese people, who vote for political parties rather than individual representatives accountable to constituents. Under this system, party leaders select candidates from closed lists, entrenching cronyism and insulating parliamentarians from public accountability.

That architecture has never been dismantled. What the PPP/C inherited from the PNC was not merely an office — it was a constitutional instrument of dominance. The President, under Article 107, holds all ministerial portfolios until he chooses to distribute them. The Speaker, under Article 184(1), possesses what critics have called excessive, near-dictatorial authority that operates above meaningful constitutional restraint, including the power to delay or obstruct parliamentary processes through the indefinite suspension of sittings. The abuse is compounded by the fact that a sitting Speaker from the ruling party has no institutional incentive to restrain himself. When “indefinite” becomes permanent, as one commentator has noted, it transforms discretion into domination.

This is the constitutional environment in which reform must be achieved: a document that empowers delay, a legislature that can be suspended at will, and a reform commission whose findings must ultimately be accepted by a National Assembly that the ruling party controls with a majority.


What the Carter Center Actually Said — and What the Government Heard

The Carter Center’s final assessment of Guyana’s 2025 elections presents a study in contrasts: technical excellence undermined by systemic failure. While the Center lauded the vote’s execution as the most efficient in its monitoring history, this praise was sharply tempered by a warning that the electoral architecture remains fundamentally flawed.
At the heart of the critique is the “winner-takes-all” model, which the report argues fails to ensure genuine proportional or regional representation. By excluding significant portions of the population from meaningful governance, this system continues to serve as a primary driver of national instability.

The Center’s key recommendation is the depoliticization and reform of GECOM. It urged the Constitutional Reform Commission to resume its work immediately and consider alternative, independent structures for the country’s election management body, noting that the current structure, based on an “outdated” formula, has resulted in a polarised body prone to gridlock and a lack of trust among the broader public and smaller political parties.

Critically, the report also flagged a specific procedural concern — a potential conflict of interest involving the Attorney General, who provided legal advice to the Commission while simultaneously running as a candidate. That is not a footnote. That is a structural integrity problem sitting at the centre of the reform process. The chief legal officer of the State cannot advise a constitutional commission while standing as a partisan candidate seeking office. That Nandlall continues to present himself as the authoritative voice on reform — after that conflict was publicly noted by international observers — speaks to the degree to which the government views criticism as an inconvenience to be managed rather than a standard to be met.

The Carter Center also recommended that the constitutional review process consider Guyana’s electoral system and corresponding methods of delimiting boundaries to ensure that equal suffrage is upheld, noting that the country’s population has changed significantly in the 24 years since the boundaries were last drawn — a change now confirmed by the 2022 national census released in January 2026.

A Carter Center team is scheduled to visit Georgetown in June 2026 to discuss the report and its recommendations with the government and key stakeholders. That visit should be treated not as a courtesy call but as an accountability moment. Civil society must prepare submissions. The media must demand public reporting. And Parliament, if it is in session, must formally receive the Carter Center’s final report as a tabled document for debate.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 592 𝙂𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙂𝙪𝙮𝙖𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙘, 𝙥𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙛𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙨.

Gail Teixeira speaks: Parliament , Diplomats,Regrets.

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BY: GHK LALL

It’s why I have such regard for the Hon Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Lady Gail Texeira.  For every Guyana wake house situation, she has the right sad song: “Now it’s crying time again….”  Seems she has the dirty job of conveying the disappointment of Pres Ali and Vice President Jagdeo to the meddling diplomatic community.  Disappointment, not disgust.  Or wanting to tear into the likes of Excellencies Luca Antonini and Nicole D. Theriot and give them a piece of the PPP headmen mind.  Comrade Gail is now new and improved: “it is regrettable” has tactful diplomatic tinges plastered.  When used twice, it underlines PPP outrage at being caught with its parliamentary pants down.

According to Minister Texeira, all the ambassadors had to do was ask.  Almost a hundred days with the walls and rafters of Guyana’s parliament shrouded in ghostly silence.  Not a word from Excellency Ali, Speaker (what’s his name, again?), or parliamentarian par excellence, Minister Texeira herself, and diplomats helpful to Guyana’s cause get their knuckles wrapped.  I translate “it is regrettable” for Guyanese and the diplomatic community.

First, the good news: doesn’t qualify as “a feral blast.”  I must differ.  It’s tantamount, however, to this: get thy dirty paws off Guyana’s parliamentary affairs.  Or, know thy place, mind thy manners, and stay the hell out of Guyana’s business.  It’s said that no good deed goes unpunished.  Well, there was the enlightened Gail Texeira taking it upon herself (with the Ali-Jagdeo combo backing) to sock it to the ABCEU people who were only trying to move things along.  The PPP Govt didn’t need the help, since June 5th was already settled in PPP land for the reconvening of parliament.  Note the clever arithmetic, folks: after snatching over three months of this parliament’s life away, the crafty PPP seized another two weeks, a dozen more days, of parliament being as quiet as a graveyard for itself.  There’s soundness of vision, a group of clever politicians using their wits to give Guyanese fits.

Speaking for myself, I extend my own regrets to the venerable, increasingly incomprehensible, Gail Texeira, Duchess of Parliamentary Governance in Guyana.  Those who are fragile, shouldn’t be hostile.  The Guyanese people were patient.  The diplomats that mattered were patient.  Reconvening parliament on June 5th (hopefully, this means in 2026) represents more than 100 days of inaction, incompetence, and intransigence.  It is PPP insipidity, despite its 7-seat majority, and indicative of its impotency.  It still fears.  Still has to hide and dodge and disappear for long stretches.  Dr. Ali failed to answer the call of the bell.  Dr. Jagdeo failed to decide on what new job title fits him best.  And, there is Ms. Gail Texeira, who failed to persuade.  But now looms large and casts an awkward shadow, as Guyana parliamentary master maneuverer.  “It’s regrettable.”

Where was the honorable lady before, a veteran of countless local political skirmishes, now a proven hand at articulating silvery outrage at the resident diplomatic community.  The ABCE people are getting impatient.  The PPP is proving to be an unwanted burden that can only be tolerated for so long.  The PPP has to be helped with elections.  It has to be helped with oil (Excellencies Theriot and Helsberg on renegotiation).  Its people helped to count their toes and comb their hair.  But, when helped with a push to get parliament going, there is Gail ‘Stormy Weather’ Texeira reading her version of a riot act to foreign diplomats.

Who helped parliament to get started after the elections?  Diplomats.  Who has to jump in again and move to restart parliament?  Diplomats.  But there is Excellency Texeira telling the world that June 5th was set moons ago.  It’s regrettable that that PPP memo was filed under ‘SHRED, then DISCARD.’  This is governance for the gods.  By whom, please don’t ask.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 592 𝙂𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙂𝙪𝙮𝙖𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙘, 𝙥𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙛𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙨.

HEALTH ADVISORY

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Saharan Dust Event Expected

The Ministry of Health advises the public that an influx of Saharan dust is expected to affect air quality across the country.

Residents are urged to take the necessary precautions to minimize exposure and reduce the risk of dust-related health complications. Individuals should remain indoors as much as possible, particularly during periods of high dust concentration. Those who must venture outside are encouraged to wear appropriate face coverings.

Persons with asthma, allergies, or other respiratory conditions should ensure that their medications are readily available and used as prescribed. Increased fluid intake is also recommended to help maintain respiratory health.
The Ministry continues to monitor the situation and will provide updates as necessary.

Stay safe. Protect your health.

“Show the Schedule or Stop the Spin.”

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A RESPONSE TO GAIL TEIXEIRA’S DRIVEL

“𝑷𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝑺𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒅𝒖𝒍𝒆 𝑹𝒆𝒎𝒂𝒊𝒏𝒔 𝑾𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏 𝑪𝒐𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒕𝒖𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝑭𝒓𝒂𝒎𝒆𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌”— GT BUZZ

Spare us the polished talking points and constitutional window dressing—what we are witnessing is not procedural normalcy, it is calculated avoidance of scrutiny.

If everything is above board, then publish the parliamentary schedule. Not selectively, not vaguely, not through press statements—publish it in full. The refusal or reluctance to do so raises a simple question: what exactly is being hidden from the people?

Government business is not a private exercise conducted behind closed doors and dressed up after the fact. It is funded by taxpayers, it is executed in the name of the people, and it must be subjected to continuous parliamentary oversight. That is not optional. That is the foundation of accountable governance.

You cannot boast about budgets, projects, and national development while sidelining the very institution designed to interrogate, approve, and monitor those actions.

The National Assembly is not a ceremonial inconvenience—it is the central pillar of democratic accountability.

Keeping it effectively dormant while claiming “work continues” is nothing short of political evasion.

Let us call this what it is: governance by insulation. A system where decisions are made, money is spent, and policies are rolled out without the consistent, visible, and structured scrutiny of Parliament. That is not strength. That is a dangerous drift toward executive dominance.

And the attempt to dismiss legitimate concern by hiding behind sovereignty arguments is equally disingenuous. Sovereignty does not mean secrecy. It does not mean the executive gets to decide when and how democracy is performed. It certainly does not mean the public must accept silence where transparency is required.

Elections are not a five-year licence to disappear into unchecked authority. Democracy does not begin and end at the ballot box. It lives—or dies—in the daily practice of accountability, debate, and institutional integrity. When those mechanisms are weakened, delayed, or manipulated, the damage is not theoretical—it is real and immediate.

And let us not pretend otherwise: when the lines between party and state blur, when institutions bend to executive convenience, and when Parliament is treated as expendable, the word “capture” is no longer provocative—it is accurate.


The Guyanese people are not naïve. They understand the difference between governance and control. They understand when they are being managed instead of represented.

So again, the demand is simple: show the schedule. Convene the Assembly. Subject government business to the scrutiny it requires.
Anything less is not governance. It is avoidance dressed up as order.
And the country deserves better than that.

Who Polices the Police? America’s Costly Campaign of Global Retribution

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BY: Staff— Writer

𝙏𝙝𝙚 592 𝙂𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙣.       

The arrest of Adys Lastres Morera, a relative of a senior figure in Cuba’s military-linked GAESA conglomerate, is being presented by U.S. authorities as a matter of national security. But strip away the diplomatic language, and a more troubling pattern emerges—one that reflects an increasingly aggressive posture by Washington under Donald Trump, positioning itself as the de facto police force of the world.

Morera, a lawful permanent resident since 2023, now faces removal proceedings not for any publicly substantiated criminal act, but under the broad and elastic justification that her presence “undermines U.S. foreign policy interests.” That phrase should alarm anyone concerned with due process and the rule of law. It signals a shift away from evidence-based enforcement toward politically motivated targeting.

This is not an isolated incident. It is part of a wider doctrine—one that expends billions of dollars pursuing individuals across borders, often in the name of ideological confrontation rather than tangible national benefit.

At a time when Americans themselves are grappling with inflation, economic uncertainty, and strained public resources, such actions raise serious questions about priorities. What exactly is gained by these high-profile detentions? And at what cost?

The irony is stark. While the United States asserts jurisdiction over foreign nationals and foreign-linked entities, it increasingly blurs the line between legitimate law enforcement and geopolitical retribution. The justification often rests on opaque claims of “threats” without transparent evidence, eroding the credibility of institutions that claim to uphold justice.

Meanwhile, the broader consequences are ignored. These policies exacerbate international tensions, complicate diplomatic relations, and deepen economic pressures—both abroad and at home. The costs are not merely financial; they are institutional and moral. Each such action chips away at the principles the United States claims to defend.

And this raises the most uncomfortable question of all: who holds power accountable when it overreaches? If the United States assumes the role of global enforcer, who then enforces the law against the United States—or against leaders who weaponize that power for political ends?

The arrest of Morera may seem like a minor headline in the churn of global news. But it is emblematic of something far larger: a system increasingly driven by retribution over reason, projection over principle, and power over justice.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 592 𝙂𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙂𝙪𝙮𝙖𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙘, 𝙥𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙛𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙨.

Guyana Can’t Be a First-Class Airport with a Third-Class Aviation Strategy

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BY: Hem Kumar                                

𝙏𝙝𝙚 592 𝙂𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙣

Guyana’s aviation history is not a relic to be admired—it is a roadmap we are failing to follow.

From its humble beginnings in 1939, when British Guiana Airways stitched together isolated riverine communities with amphibious aircraft, aviation in Guyana was never a luxury. It was a necessity. It connected the hinterland to the coast, enabled medical access, supported commerce, and ultimately became a pillar of national development. By the time Guyana Airways emerged as the national flag carrier in 1966, it was more than an airline—it was a declaration of sovereignty, capability, and ambition.

Today, we boast of having one of the most modern and rapidly expanding airports in the Caribbean and Latin America. But that boast rings hollow.
An airport without a national airline is infrastructure without strategy.

The story of Guyana Airways proves that state-supported aviation is not only viable but essential in a country defined by geography, resource expansion, and uneven development. For decades, the airline connected interior communities like Lethem, Mabaruma, and Kamarang—areas that remain economically critical today, particularly as Guyana’s oil wealth and extractive industries push deeper into the hinterland.
Market forces now demand—not discourage—the return of a national carrier.
Guyana is no longer a small, struggling economy. It is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. Passenger traffic is rising. Business travel is surging. Diaspora links to New York, Toronto, and the Caribbean are stronger than ever.

Tourism is expanding. Cargo demand—particularly for energy, agriculture, and mining—is increasing. Yet, we remain dependent on foreign carriers to move our people, control our pricing, and dictate our connectivity.
That is not a position of strength. It is a structural vulnerability.
Critics will point to the collapse of Guyana Airways in 1999 as a cautionary tale. They are not wrong—but they are incomplete. The airline failed under a very different economic reality: high debt, weak management structures, and a limited market.

None of those conditions define Guyana today. What failed then was not the concept of a national airline—it was its execution.
Modern aviation models offer alternatives that did not exist in the 1990s: public-private partnerships, strategic alliances, code-sharing agreements, and lean fleet operations. A reimagined national carrier does not have to replicate the past. It must be built for the future—efficient, commercially driven, and strategically aligned with national development goals.

The question is no longer whether Guyana can afford a national airline.
The question is whether we can afford not to have one.

Without a national carrier, Guyana forfeits control over critical aspects of its economic expansion—airlift capacity, route development, pricing competitiveness, and emergency response capability. We risk becoming a transit point rather than a hub, a customer rather than a competitor.

A country positioning itself as a regional energy powerhouse cannot outsource its aviation backbone indefinitely.
Reinstating a national airline is not about nostalgia. It is about sovereignty, economic leverage, and strategic foresight. It is about ensuring that the same spirit that once used amphibious aircraft to reach remote communities now drives a modern aviation enterprise capable of connecting Guyana to global markets on its own terms.

We have the demand. We have the infrastructure. We have the economic momentum.

What we need now is the political will.

A Subsidy Disguised as Strategy

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Beneath the rhetoric lies a familiar reality—public losses, private gains, and political survival

There is a dangerous and intellectually dishonest narrative taking root in Guyana—one that seeks to chain the survival of a failing, state-subsidised sugar industry to the success of a highly profitable private rum company.

Prime Minister Mark Phillips’ claim that Guyana “cannot produce world-class rum without sustaining sugar production” is not only misleading—it is a calculated deflection from the real issue: decades of unchecked public spending on an industry that has consistently failed to justify its cost.
Let us deal in facts, not sentiment.

GuySuCo has absorbed tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies over the past three decades. Year after year, it has failed to produce sugar at a cost competitive with global prices. It remains structurally inefficient, operationally challenged, and financially dependent on the Treasury for survival.

In stark contrast stands Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL)—a private, profit-making corporation that has successfully repositioned itself in the global premium rum market. It has done what efficient enterprises do: adapt, innovate, and grow.
But here is the contradiction the Prime Minister refuses to confront.
If DDL’s success truly depends on sugar, then why is the Guyanese taxpayer being asked to subsidize that dependency? Why is a private company’s supply chain risk being transferred onto the public balance sheet?

Serious businesses do not operate this way. They secure their inputs. They invest in their supply chains. They acquire or partner where necessary to ensure stability and control. If molasses is as indispensable as the government claims, then DDL should be at the forefront of acquiring, restructuring, or directly investing in sugar production.
That is what vertical integration looks like. That is what responsibility looks like.
Anything less is a quiet but deliberate socialization of cost and privatization of profit.

And the question that exposes the fragility of the Prime Minister’s argument is this: what happens when the subsidies stop?
If a future administration—faced with mounting fiscal pressures or shifting priorities—decides it can no longer justify injecting billions into GuySuCo, does DDL cease operations? Or does it simply source molasses from the international market, as any rational business would?
The answer is obvious—and it dismantles the entire premise.

Which brings us to the uncomfortable truth at the heart of this policy posture: this is not economics. This is politics.
The continued subsidization of sugar has long functioned as an electoral instrument—preserving jobs in key constituencies, sustaining rural economic dependencies, and maintaining a support base that is politically valuable. In that context, the invocation of rum is not an economic argument; it is a convenient narrative, designed to make an unsustainable policy appear strategically necessary.

A political necessity is being dressed up as an economic imperative.

Yes, sugar is part of Guyana’s history. Yes, rum is part of its identity. But history cannot be financed indefinitely by taxpayers, and identity cannot be used to obscure fiscal irresponsibility.

If the government believes sugar has a future, it must present a transparent, time-bound plan for viability, with measurable outcomes and accountability. If it does not, then it must stop constructing artificial linkages to justify its continued existence.
Guyanese are not blind to this contradiction. They are being asked, year after year, to fund losses they do not control, for benefits that are politically distributed but economically unsound.

Guyana cannot build a modern economy on this foundation.
It is not strategy. It is subsidy without end, sustained by political convenience and disguised as national pride—and it is time that fiction is called out for what it is.

The question is no longer whether rum depends on sugar. The question is why the Guyanese taxpayer is being asked to carry a burden that private enterprise itself is unwilling to assume.

𝙏𝙝𝙚 592𝙂𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙣𝙏𝙧𝙪𝙩𝙝 𝘼𝙘𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙗𝙞𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙮,𝙄𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙜𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙄𝙣𝙂𝙪𝙮𝙖𝙣𝙖 𝘼𝙣𝙙𝘾𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙗𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙣 𝙋𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙨. — ✦—

A Servant of the State Has Become an Instrument of Suppression

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BY: Staff— Writer

𝙏𝙝𝙚 592 𝙂𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙣.    

When an unelected REO does the work of elected Regional officials, it is not governance — it is the PPP’s velvet-gloved coup against democracy in Region 10.

The photographs tell a story that no government press release will ever dare to tell. A newly appointed Regional Executive Officer — an unelected civil servant, a political appointee who has never once placed his name before the people of Region 10 — is pictured tramping through communities, consulting with residents, inspecting drains, and conducting field visits. On the surface, it looks like diligence. Look closer, and it is something far more sinister.

That is the work of the Regional Chairman and Vice-Chairman. It is constitutionally mandated, democratically earned work — belonging to the elected representatives of the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) party, who won the Regional Democratic Council of Region 10 fair and square at the 2025 local government elections. The people of Linden and its surrounding communities spoke. They chose their representatives. And the PPP-led government, apparently allergic to the democratic verdict wherever it does not favour them, has decided those representatives simply will not function.

The REO Is Not a Chairman. The Constitution Says So.
Let us be unambiguous about what a Regional Executive Officer is, and what he is not. The REO is the Accounting Officer of the Regional Democratic Council. He is an administrator — appointed, not elected — tasked with managing the financial and administrative machinery of the RDC. His role is to serve the Regional Chairman and the democratically constituted Regional Administration. He is a functionary. He is not a policymaker. He is certainly not a substitute Chairman.

The Regional Democratic Council is a creature of the Constitution of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana. Chapter 7, Article 72 of that Constitution establishes Local Democratic Organs as part of the architecture of participatory governance in this country. The elected Chairman and Vice-Chairman derive their authority directly from the people. No President, no Minister of Local Government, and no hand-picked REO can lawfully strip them of that authority — not without tearing pages from the very Constitution the PPP government swore to uphold.
What is happening in Region 10 is precisely that — a tearing of pages.

Victimization Dressed in a High-Visibility Vest
The PPP’s strategy is not new. It has been deployed before, against other regions, against other opposition-controlled councils. Where they cannot win at the ballot box, they strangle through administration. Resources are withheld. Statutory allocations are delayed. And when all else fails, they empower the REO — their man, their appointee — to simply do the job of the elected officials, rendering the Chairman and Vice-Chairman ceremonial figureheads with titles but no territory.

This is victimization. Not the kind that is loud and obvious — no one is being arrested, no office has been padlocked.

This is the creeping, bureaucratic, suffocating kind of victimization that is designed to frustrate, to humiliate, and ultimately to delegitimize a duly elected Regional Administration in the eyes of its own constituents. If residents see the REO in the field addressing their concerns while their Chairman is nowhere to be found — not because he refuses to serve, but because he is being systematically locked out of the tools and authority needed to serve — what conclusion are they meant to draw?
That is the calculation. That is the intention.

The Government Cannot Have It Both Ways
This administration speaks endlessly of constitutional governance. President Ali invokes the rule of law at every press conference and international forum. Ministers lecture the opposition about respecting state institutions. Yet here, in Region 10, a constitutional body — the Regional Democratic Council — is being functionally neutered by the very government that claims to be democracy’s guardian.

You cannot celebrate the Constitution on Independence Day and desecrate it on every other day of the year. You cannot demand that opposition parties respect electoral outcomes nationally while engineering the collapse of those same outcomes at the regional level. The hypocrisy is not merely breathtaking — it is dangerous. It tells every Guyanese citizen who does not carry a PPP membership card that their vote has a ceiling, that democracy in this country is conditional, and that the Constitution is a document of convenience rather than a covenant of governance.

Region 10 Deserves Better. Guyana Deserves Better. The 592 Guardian calls on the Minister of Local Government and Regional Development to immediately cease and desist from any directive — formal or informal — that empowers the REO of Region 10 to usurp the functions constitutionally belonging to the elected Regional Chairman and Vice-Chairman.

We call on the Integrity Commission and the relevant oversight bodies to investigate whether the conduct of the REO, and those who have directed him, constitutes a breach of the constitutional order.

We call on civil society, the Bar Association of Guyana, and all defenders of democratic governance to speak with one voice: what is happening in Region 10 is not administration. It is occupation.

And we say to the people of Region 10 — your vote was not wasted. Your mandate was real. The attempt to erase it is the clearest possible evidence that those in power fear what you represent: an independent, determined electorate that will not be bought, bullied, or bypassed.

That is a power no REO, however willing, can ever take from you.

We Are Selling Rice.We Are Buying Back

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Our Shame.

Guyana exports the grain and imports the flour. It harvests the oil and outsources the refinery of ambition. This nation has been haemorrhaging economic value and political accountability for generations — and the time to stop the bleeding is not tomorrow. It is now.

Walk into any supermarket in Georgetown today and you will find it on the shelf: four pounds of rice flour, imported from India, priced at approximately US$9.00 — nearly two thousand Guyanese dollars — for a product derived from a crop this country grows in abundance. Let that sit for a moment. Guyana, one of the Caribbean’s foremost rice producers, is paying a foreign nation to mill its own grain and ship it back. This is not a quirk of the market. It is a monument to our collective failure.

That failure did not arrive overnight. Its roots reach back to the Burnham era, when initiatives to process rice into value-added goods — flour, bran, starch — were derailed not by any shortage of raw material or industrial capacity, but by political weaponisation of public fear. Opposition voices of the time warned that rice flour consumption would cause “beri beri” or “white mouth.” Whether born of genuine misunderstanding or naked expediency, those narratives found purchase. Public confidence in domestic production collapsed. And with it, the ambition to build an agro-industrial economy worthy of this nation’s resources.

“A nation cannot keep blaming its past while its present leaders reproduce the same pattern of squandered opportunity and deflected accountability.”

But we will not let old political ghosts carry all the blame. The deeper failure was institutional. Policy was inconsistent. Technological investment was inadequate. Processing infrastructure was neglected. And there was no long-term strategy to develop domestic markets for domestically transformed goods. Skepticism thrives where competence is absent — and competence requires sustained political will, not just good intentions at a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

US$9.00

PER 4 LBS OF IMPORTED RICE FLOUR — A PRODUCT GUYANA GROWS BUT DOES NOT MILL

At current retail prices in Georgetown supermarkets. Guyana remains dependent on Indian processors for value-added rice products while exporting raw paddy at fraction of the price.

The result is a textbook case of value-chain dependency: raw commodity out, finished product back in — at a premium. Every bag of imported rice flour is a quiet indictment. It tells us that decades after independence, after nationalisation, after oil discovery, after billions in revenue projections, we still have not built the systems to transform what we grow into what we need. We are, in the language of development economics, trapped at the bottom of the value chain — not by fate, but by choice. By negligence. By a failure of governance that has never been adequately named, let alone corrected.

ON ACCOUNTABILITY

And this brings us to the harder truth. The rice flour scandal — and we will call it what it is — does not exist in isolation. It is a symptom of a governance culture in which leaders are never truly required to answer for what they leave undone. Decisions with generational consequences are made, or unmade, without explanation. Opportunities are buried. And the public is expected to accept, to move on, to wait for the next election cycle as though that alone constitutes democratic accountability.

It does not. Accountability is not a quadrennial event. It is a daily obligation. It is transparency in decision-making. It is the willingness to stand before the people — not with press releases and photo-opportunities — but with honest reckoning about what has failed and why. It is the courage to say: we got this wrong, here is how we will fix it, and here is the timeline on which you may hold us to that promise.

Power is not built on comfort. It is built on responsibility, on pressure, on the unrelenting demand to do better. A leader who cannot face scrutiny has no business holding authority.

Guyana stands today at a genuinely historic inflection point. Oil revenues have changed the arithmetic of what is possible. The world is watching. Investment is flowing. And yet the old patterns persist: raw potential exported, finished value imported, questions deflected, failures absorbed quietly by a population conditioned to expect disappointment from those who govern them. That conditioning is itself a form of political damage — and reversing it requires citizens who refuse to be quiet.

We are not calling for rancour. We are calling for standards. We are calling for servant leadership — leaders who understand that public office is a mandate issued in trust, not a throne claimed by election. Leaders who measure their tenure not by the infrastructure they announce but by the lives they materially improve. Leaders who welcome scrutiny as the legitimate exercise of democratic sovereignty, not as an affront to their authority.

The question for this new era of Guyanese prosperity is therefore not simply whether the country will build a rice flour mill — though it should, and urgently. The question is whether Guyana will build a governance culture equal to its resources. Whether it will create institutions capable of converting potential into transformation. Whether it will hold those in power to a standard commensurate with the trust placed in them.

Wealth without accountability is not development. It is an accelerant for inequality, entrenched dysfunction, and the deepening cynicism of a people who have seen too many promises evaporate.

Our Demand

The time for quiet acceptance has passed. It passed long ago — with every bag of imported rice flour, with every missed processing opportunity, with every year that the country’s agricultural inheritance was left unrefined and undervalued. Citizens who remain silent in the face of repeated, documented failure do not escape its consequences. They inherit them. And they pass them on.

So we say this plainly: public servants exist to serve the public — not the reverse. Their mandate is not self-perpetuation. It is transformation. And transformation demands that they be challenged, pressed, questioned, and if necessary, replaced by those with the competence and the courage to do what the moment requires.

“Guyana does not need louder promises.
It needs leaders who are held — and hold themselves — to account.
Servant leadership is not a slogan. It is a standard.
And we will accept nothing less.”

𝙏𝙝𝙚 592 𝙂𝙪𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙞𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙨 𝙖𝙣 𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙂𝙪𝙮𝙖𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙤𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙡𝙚𝙩 𝙘𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙞𝙫𝙞𝙘, 𝙥𝙤𝙡𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙖𝙡, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙧𝙚𝙜𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙖𝙡 𝙖𝙛𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙨.