Arms bust: Guyanese perils amid unknowns

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THE 592 GUARDIAN| OPINION| GTOWN GUYANA JUNE 2026

Arms bust: Guyanese perils amid unknowns

BY:GHK LALL
It’s a ton of guns.  Twenty-three machine guns and over 500 rounds seized from a vehicle with a Venezuelan driver represent some serious tonnage.  The quantity and type of guns (AK-47) make them a frightening proposition.  Throw in over 500 rounds of ammo, and somebody was readying for a war.  The Venezuelan component makes the seizure even more ominous.  I am hoping that the intelligence has it right with that across-the-border connection.  While that may be so, what to think of one man with 23 machineguns notorious for their killing power language?  He may be superman.  He was certainly daring to drive around with that stash that fills up a passenger vehicle.  But he alone is not capable of using all those weapons simultaneously.

 

Guyana law enforcement net(s) captured a nest of guns.  But there has to be a network of engaged Venezuelans somewhere in the area.  How many and where?  Meaning, networks and men at the ready.

 So far, I have been accepting at face value a Venezuelan connection of some sort, and going along.  But what if it is really not so?  What if there are a few Guyanese hands in the mix?  The Regent Street gas station bombing had a Venezuelan as the number one accused.  There were, however, a couple of Guyanese in supporting roles.  Is the same program in action here?  And, if (a big if) Guyanese are involved in this big gun bust, are they of the market garden variety?  In other words, run-of-the-mill, street corner, citizens of this republic.

I think that it is a reasonable place, fair questions.  How can it not be, when Guyanese inhabit an environment that is trapped in secrets?  And, when so many pieces of information (if any) that come from public institutions are made up of more secrets.  And, when the Guyanese people, having been fed so many deceptions by their own folk, absorb what may be the whole truth, but cannot bring themselves to believe that what they are getting is only part of the story, a half-truth.  By definition, there’s no such animal as a half-truth; and, if that is considered, it’s really a disguised lie.

Time to zero in some more on this insinuated Caracas connection.  First, the lead accused in the Regent Street gas station bombing, a Venezuelan, admitted to the crime, only to reverse himself in court.  What to make of that mystery development?  I recommend that Guyanese watch out for some report of one of those cellblock suicides by hanging.  The issue, then, would be whether that was by his own hand, or that of those helping along, accelerating his departure.  Second, some Venezuelans are struggling to make it here, for different reasons.  To be in such a situation makes a man desperate; especially when he has debts here, and a family across the border.  A desperate man will grab at any opportunity that offers a quick, sweet, payoff for a couple hours of work. 

Especially, if it comes with assurances of there being no loose ends, and everything is under control.  Recall those instances that became public and involved drug mules recruited to do some transportation for a nice piece of change.  They take that chance, when the odds of getting past watching eyes are high.  Third, I have some difficulty believing that Caracas is so unsophisticated, so reckless, as to put 23 machineguns all in one bag and in only one operator’s hands.  When something is too good to be true, it usually isn’t.  Couple that to a thoroughly untrustworthy regime, with willing and powerfully-placed supporting players, and my interpretation is that Guyanese are in a terrible place.

Couple that to a thoroughly untrustworthy regime, with willing and powerfully-placed supporting players, and my interpretation is that Guyanese are in a terrible place.

The concern for me is that there are these seizures of machineguns-10 in Berbice recently and now 23 across the Demerara River close to each other, who are the real people behind these gun busts?  And, where is all of this leading, towards —what objective(s)?  The latest is two others, one with a Guyanese sounding name, now in police custody.  What does that say?  Confirmation of who’s who could still be long in coming.  And, when all is said and done, Guyanese are in a dangerous place.

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

Justice Arif Bulkan: Guyana devours its own

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THE 592 GUARDIAN♦ TRUTH ♦ACCOUNTABILITY♦INTEGRITY

Justice Arif Bulkan: Guyana devours its own

Dr. Arif Bulkan.  I thought that all Guyanese-from First Citizen Ali to the last citizen-would have been proud.  By the distinction of a Guyanese finally making it to the CCJ.  Not as a petitioner or advocate.  But as one of its respected justices.  Like so many things about this country, restarting and restudying it are now mandatory.

There is a problem with Justice Bulkan.  Please, pray tell, what offends so much?  Then, help with what basis for such determined resistance, such a call, that there be recusal?  To acknowledge what failing, what imagined flaw, that has contributed to his falling from the gracious considerations of those who fear?  Out of a cohort of nine, one is feared?  Is fairness, what is right and just, feared that much in Guyana?  And not by ordinary citizens, but by those who have amassed so much power in their hands?  “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown….” (Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part 2, Act III, Scene 1).  Every leaf that stirs disturbs the peace of those who live with dreads, many largely earned, a few imagined.  Justice Bulkan belongs to the latter category.

It is to the credit of the Hon Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, SC, that he hasn’t lodge any objection (Motion to Recuse) before the Caribbean Court of Justice.  Mr. Nandlall, acting in his capacities as attorney general and a legal practitioner, would earn eternal encomia for coming out publicly and denouncing sharply, with all that he is capable of, any efforts to tarnish Justice Bulkan’s honor.  As a man, as a man of the law, as a man of considerable standing in this country, he can clothe himself with honor, if he doesn’t shrink from taking that mandatory step.  If he hasn’t wrapped his arms and his mind around the implications of the attack on Justice Bulkan, then I lend a hand.

An attack on Guyanese-born, Justice Arif Bulkan is an attack on all Guyanese.  By misguided attempts to scorch one of its stellar sons.  Pres Ali is made to look like a man of unwarranted vehemence, of destructive venom, when he is not.  As Guyana’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Ali has to be troubled, when what was unleashed against a Guyanese at the heights of regional jurisprudence questions his intellectual and legal honesty, through scurrilous efforts to taint him. 

The court that stands at the peak of the regional pyramid loses some luster, if only because of vile, brutish, endeavors. 

  

If there were grounds, one millimeter, I could pause, reflect, and admit that a closer look is mandatory.  But where is that one pebble (one only) where Justice Bulkan has stumbled, dropped to his knees, due to the weight of relationships that are contrast sharply with standing norms?  Or any other weight, for that matter.

This country does devour its young, its free of mind, its men and women who hold to that indefinable construct called conscience. Guyana has expelled its most promising, still sends its best and brightest hurrying to wipe the dust from their feet, and out of a place now irretrievably lost.

 It is no wonder that so few seek to return to their homeland, a land now so universally attractive.  Others want to return, but it’s for what they can get out of Guyana and its newfound riches.  It is damnation for those whose who still think and wish to live: ‘ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.’

It is a fitting note in which to close due to the proven notorious family ties of the famous utterer of those inspiring words.  For who was John F. Kennedy’s father, if not Joseph P. Kennedy.  Rumrunner.  Stock manipulator.  Lawbreaker.  The list is longer still.  Yet his son made it all the way to the White House and the presidency of the United States.  The sins of the father turned upside down. 

In Guyana, made up sins, fabricated crimes, are what remains in efforts to weaken Justice Arif Bulkan, attach a dark cast to him.  I offer Justice Bulkan and his family what works for me.  Adversity is an opportunity to learn humility, grow in integrity.

Carolyn Rodrigues for UN Sec Gen -I endorse

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THE 592 GUARDIAN -OPINION

Carolyn Rodrigues -Birkett for UN Sec Gen -I endorse

BY:GHK LALL

Way to go, Excellency Ali.  Excellency Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett is Guyana’s nominee for the prestigious and demanding role of United Nations Secretary General.  Why not?  Since everybody globally have their eyes on a wedge of Guyana’s riches, here’s an opportunity to do some horse-trading.  A vote for Excellency Suzy is a favorable ballot cast for a portion of Guyana’s patrimony.  There is plenty to share around. 

The Ali government can be depended upon to be generous.  Recall that politics, whether at the bottom-house level or the rooftops of the world is about quid pro quos (something for something). 

A fair bargain, I say.  Depending on what is gotten for what is given away.

The Guyana Government (PPP) may not like Guyanese born Dr. Arif Bulkan in the role of CCJ jurist. 

It is reported to have stood in the way of his ascending to another role in Europe that was a tribute to his perspicacity and sagacity. 

Indeed, his mind and the manner in which he employs it will always be two perennial bestsellers.  The hope is that I am getting through to Excellency, Dr. Ali, Guyana’s president.  Call of the curs, sir.  Vehemence in politics is pardonable.  Up to a point only. 

But the PPP’s thirst for vengeance and the vindictiveness and viciousness that must accompany it to reinforce should have no place in Guyana’s politics.  Let that be monopolized by Donald Trump.  Let him have exclusive rights to those depraved standards.

If Guyana is ever going to come within 100 miles of One Guyana, then PPP savagery against Dr. Arif Bulkan should not be. 

Who are the haters now, if not the PPP?  But there is Excellency Rodrigues-Birkett whose name is now entered in the UN Sec Gen race.  I support her nomination for several reasons.  Notwithstanding her former flair for table-climbing, political gyrating, and other such entertaining antics.  What is past is past. 

There is her nomination to which I lend my voice.

First, she is Guyanese.  Two, she is female -would make a groundbreaking Secretary General. 

There is a female CARICOM Secretary General, Excellency Carla Barnett.  There was a woman Commonwealth Secretary General, Baroness Patricia Janet Scotland.  Excellency Rodrigues-Birkett is Guyanese, a woman, and third she is also of indigenous heritage.  She is also fairly astute.  Politically.  Recall how she praised former U.S. Ambassador Brendt Hardt (another devout Roman Catholic), days before her sister ministers in the PPP scorched him with a so-called feral blast, and in his castle of all places.  An unbeatable combination; a winner for whom I would vote eight days in every week.  It’s the way that the PPP has practiced voting, isn’t it?  After all the horrors that the Spaniards, Dutch, French, British (and now Americans) inflicted upon the Incas, Aztecs, Caribs, Arawaks, and other indigenous peoples native to this hemisphere, it is time for some leveling of the scales, an executive and administrative repatriation of sorts.

The U.S. has a big say, holds a significant amount of sway in things of this nature (like it does with the ICJ), and it is a special friend of Guyana. 

So, I am counting for the U.S. to favor Sister Suzie.  China is a partner, ally, and fellow traveler alongside Guyana.  Thus, nothing prevents that superpower from the Orient to throwdown with thumbs up for Guyana’s choice for UN SG.  It should be a lock.  Naturally, it depends on what Guyana is offering in return.  Get real, Guyanese.  Welcome to the real world.  Pres Ali has made his name (such as it is) as a willing soldier when it comes to deal making.  This is his big opportunity to give a big hand up to Susan Rodrigues-Birkett.  She can depend on him.  I am.

In the spirit of One Guyana, I urge all Guyanese to rally behind Excellency Rodrigues-Birkett’s nomination. 

Let us all show Pres Ali, and the PPP, how it’s done.  Politics is cast out.  Bygone begone.  If only Guyana worked like this, Guyanese thought like this.  What could be a better manifestation of Essequibo belongs to Guyana, Essequibo is OURS!  Where is Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett from if not the storied shores of Essequibo.  She is ours.  Therefore, the UN SG job should be hers.  Whoever seeks to do business here better get that right.

Memo for Messrs. Woods, Routledge -UGGI Survey -Pt III

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Memo for Messrs. Woods, Routledge -UGGI Survey -Pt III

THE 592 GUARDIAN ♦ OPINION

BY: GHK LALL

I’m the bearer of bad news for Mr. Darren Woods and Mr. Alistair Routledge, Exxon’s CEO and Guyana Country Head, respectively.

Wished it were different.  No such luck.  Must disappoint.  I humbly refer them to the University of Guyana Green Institute Survey (UGGI) titled: Trust, Oil, and Building a Better Society.”  The news is the worst that could be expected for foreign oil companies in Guyana.  Due to its oversized height, its muscular presence in Guyana, Exxon stands foremost.  I think “foreign oil companies” is a careful euphemism for Exxon.

Messrs. Woods, Routledge: Guyanese are not inspired by charity.  Bats, hats, apparel, sponsorships, community enhancements, UG monies all qualify as charity.  Cheap charity compared to real richness in a real 50:50 partner.  I believe that Guyanese think, sense, they are being tricked and cheated.  When foreign oil companies rank the lowest (2.50 out of 10) on the UGGI trust barometer in the minds of Guyanese, Exxon is savaged, has close to no standing, must rehabilitate itself.

For Mr. Routledge’s information, the only Guyanese impressed by his billboards are those feeding at Exxon’s trough.  Those swayed by handouts.  Those who live with an inferiority complex.  And those who are comfortable under the yoke of colonizers.

The mistake that Exxon and Mr. Routledge made was to dismiss Guyanese as pushovers.  Indeed, they are some at high elevations who are, and others who would do anything, from selling country to their souls, to be Exxon pushovers.

There are other Guyanese who are insulted by cheap clothing to keep them quiet, and big billboards intended to control their minds.

Mr. Woods, Mr. Routledge: it is my obligation, sirs, to convey that sparkling rhetoric doesn’t sizzle Guyanese hearts.  A first example: ‘partnership with the Guyanese people.’  It falls flat when audit obstinacy, renegotiation resistance, and complete transparency (new oil reserves, access to all areas of Exxon’s offshore ops, accounting records, and 50:50 profit calculation) incite more distrust than comfort.  Where is this partnership spoken about so smoothly?  What does it look like?  Who in Exxon harbors expectations that Guyanese are convinced that their country, their government, shares in a bona fide partnership, one of equals?  The UGGI report on foreign oil companies exposed how poorly they shape up relative to trust.

A second example: it is degrading, infuriating, for Guyanese to hear, Messrs. Woods and Routledge, about benefits for the Guyanese people, thanks to Exxon world-class management of their wealth.

Exxon harvests spectacular profits, season after season, from its “crown jewel” in Guyana, but the Guyanese owners of that same wealth, same crown jewel, live a meager existence.

  Exxon’s profit numbers and Guyana’s Oil Fund inflows do not begin to compare.  Which practical partner, one committed to a fair, straight, partnership, would not agree to ringfencing new projects?  Skirts around genuine 50:50 profit sharing when investments have been paid off, and Guyanese leaders are happy to be tethered to a merry-go-round?  Benefits are not on an equal footing, not fair.  One reason why so many locals are so distrustful of foreign oil companies.  To put brutally, many see caricatures: Ugly American, predator colonizer, ruthless exploiter.  This isn’t to disparage Guyana’s oil partner.  It’s to sound an alarm.

Mr. Woods and Mr. Routledge, when Guyanese observe their leaders slobber about sanctity of contract, grind themselves into putty, and render themselves silly, the source of their impotency traces straight to Exxon.  Their political power, their national leadership strength, hinges on the drivel of sanctity of contract.  It’s why national government ranks almost to the bottom on the UGGI’s trust scale.  Just above foreign oil companies.  The closeness in both earning such low marks from Guyanese on crucial trust could be linked to suspicions of collusion between the two.  Two peas in the same pod.  The incumbent government to retain power, the oil company to prosper to the detriment of Guyanese.  This not only reeks, but it also enrages.

Which citizen of any country is pleased to see national leaders reduced to quivering, bluffing, and bouncing from empty rhetorical stuffing?  The supine character of Guyana’s national government renders it contemptible, coats Exxon with disrepute.  Oil patrimony, democracy and liberty should never be gutted from this state.

Mr. Woods, Mr. Routledge: the game’s up.  The story is out.  Trust in Exxon is tantamount to a dead man walking.  I wish this bitter cup wasn’t mine to drink.

The Return of Sarah Ann Lynch

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THE 592-GUARDIAN OPINION

TRUTH ♦ACCOUNTABILITY♦ INTEGRITY♦

The Return of Sarah Ann Lynch

OPINION BY : GHK LALL

My position was always clear.  Excellency Sarah Ann Lynch, U.S. Ambassador to Guyana during 2019-2024, was more than a Foreign Service professional, more than a political appointment.  What the CIA did to the PPP’s Cheddi Jagan in the 1960s through the combined efforts of the media, trade unions, and nefarious political operators, the agency did with Sarah Ann Lynch in the face of the PNC’s David Granger in 2019-2020.  Now, Excellency Lynch is back.  Political success means economic rewards.  A little scripture may also help to nudge Guyanese in a thoughtful, national direction: what is hidden has a way of coming to light.  Democracy for Guyana, or the paramountcy of U.S. interests, is the choice. 

Excellency Lynch was the one-woman army that was on the move, always moving skillfully, even over to the Office of the then Leader of the Opposition, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo.  It was too much, too rich, too unlike the more studied, restrained efforts of diplomats.  Whose orders from the world capital are let local processes stand supreme.  Said differently, be a peacemaker not a warrior envoy.  I recall the late Jimmy Carter in Panama during the reign of Manuel Noreiga. In sum, when the Americans want to be rid of real or imagined threats, the jobs get done.  Sarah Ann Lynch filled that role superbly.  So well, that some Guyanese wanted to make her their new Queen Victoria, i.e., erect a statue in her honor.

Now Sarah the Great is back.  More subdued.  More on the sweet, smiling, side.  But still in the mold of a general on the move, but with new objectives in mind.   That is, very much involved in moving what is in U.S interests along. 

What’s a better vehicle than a trade delegation to manifest such interest, with her as the lead player?  She knows Dr. Jagdeo well.  Dr. Jagdeo knows both Excellency Lynch and how much he and the PPP owe her.  It’s an inspired choice by Washington to send down its diplomat cum best kept secret agent now wearing her new hat of trade envoy.  Both trade leader Lynch and Guyana’s leader Jagdeo know that it’s collection time: the piper has to be paid.  In a word -opportunities.  In two stages: open the door and let in a flood of Americans.  The downside is getting ready to see the Chinese relegated to second chair, a much smaller one that reduces them to a shadow.  Ms. Lynch’s presence is part of a pattern.  Check it out.

 Americans in influential positions have been saying it more often, more openly, now: the U.S. must be closer positioned, enjoy a bigger drag, on the Guyana milking cow.  Recall two Guyanese political patriots, Messrs. Todd and Persaud.  Whether here or in DC, the language is the same.  Security, aviation, technology and, naturally, that codeword for business, investment.  American businesses must get more, and there are no two ways about it.  I don’t have a problem (yet).  The PPP Govt’s problem is how will Dr. Jagdeo serve two masters who each have their own interests, demand priority treatment simultaneously?  The Chinese must be monitoring these incoming U.S. delegations and outgoing Guyanese ones, with alarm.  They didn’t too much for democracy back in 2019-20.  But they have been good for PPP style of business for decades.  How the Guyana’s milking cow is going to be milked by these two elephants remains to be seen.  Recall that the French are also lining up, making their objectives clear (more business here), and the British are singing the same song. 

When all this is aggregated, Pres Ali and Vice President Jagdeo see themselves as investor darlings.  Reality can be a vicious animal.  The foreign legion-Americans, Brits, Chinese, and French (Canada’s gold cup already overflows)-stalk, come to grab.  The PPP Govt has no choice, but to give.  Freely.  Cheaply.  Smilingly.  There was Dr. Jagdeo grinning from ear-to-ear.  His 2019-2020 bargaining partner, Excellency Sarah Lynch, is back in town.  Thus, the world turns.  Remember: Americans only have permanent interests, merely convenient friends.  Marco Rubio could talk cheese.

Appealing to Excellencies Ali, Phillips, Jagdeo: UGGI Report -Pt II

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592 GUARDIAN ♦OPINION♦ TRUTH♦ ACCOUNTABILITY♦ INTEGRITY

Appealing to Excellencies Ali, Phillips, Jagdeo: UGGI Report -Pt II

BY: GHK LALL 

This is a public appeal to every leader and minister in the Government of Guyana.  Excellencies Ali, Phillips, and Jagdeo, and the entire cabinet is included.  In fact, this courtesy is extended to the ruling party’s Central Executive, all voting and nonvoting members.

I regret to inform you that trust in the national government is low.  Quite frankly, and most respectfully, Excellencies and honorable Guyanese, the trust of the Guyanese people for their national government could not be lower.  Please refer to the University of Guyana Green Institute (UGGI) Independence 60 Survey, and the Preliminary Report captioned: “Trust, Oil, and the Society being Built.”  Though the sample is small (134), the area narrow (Region Four), and the age and education spread could be much wider, the finding on trust for the national government is remarkable.

On a scale of 1 to10, with the latter representing great, almost total, trust, national government received a meager 3.72 score.  Not good at all.  It is my belief that an expanded survey would yield close to the same trust score, if not worse.  Shabby and trashy for a country that is frequently in the news globally.

This means, dear leaders and ministers that the visions, mentality, policies, procedures, approaches, standards, and practices of the national government are all in need of a massive overhaul.  It means, honorable gentlemen and ladies, that the Guyanese people are not buying One Guyana nor all Guyana.  Nor that national government is doing the right things.  It means that the ethics of the national government leaves much to be desired.  It means, it must be said, that from the president to the vice presidents to the ministers are viewed mostly distrustfully, found wanting.  Undoubtedly, hardcore national government insiders would have an opposite view.  Namely, that the national government in place today is the most trusted ever.  Those who have benefited immensely and unfairly can be expected, reflexively to scorn what the UGGI Independence 60 Survey found, because their bread has been richly buttered.  I think it would be wise, practical, self-enhancing for the Survey to be absorbed, taken with utmost seriousness, by national government.  With honest intention to do something about what the people think, how they see where national government is.

For the information of Excellencies Ali, Phillips, Jagdeo and all ministers: playing to selected and captive crowds, preaching to the faithful flock has its benefits.  But the utility is limited, and misleading.  For there is more to Guyana, that other side of Guyana.  It is not of those against current national government or wanting others to be the national government.  It is of Guyanese who are seeking substance behind the words, quality leadership from those who hold those positions, and to experience the effects of living in this glorious Oil Republic.

 Try this reality.  My own experience with traditional, diehard, supporters of this national government has been almost overwhelmingly negative.  The negativity begins and ends with distrust.

The lament is that piracies are too much, that accepting responsibility is alien to the culture of national government, that taking genuine action to right the ship of state is yet another trick played on citizens, and that being answerable to the people has distilled to either mocking or ignoring them altogether.  Note: this is not from the UGGI Survey, but from my own encounters with those who trusted enough to vote into national office.

Trust means that someone is seen as dependable, because he or she has delivered, proven true to their promises.  A track record that’s its own best recommendation.  Trust in national government, especially in this time of an unprecedented, unmatched, bonanza, means that its principals are seen as honest, honoring oaths, fighting for the Guyanese people, and not first for what benefits themselves, circle.  No spins; just doing honest things.

 In closing, I wish I could trust the names mentioned and their companions. Most unfortunately, I cannot.  When they prove themselves worthy of all Guyanese, rich and poor, I trust.  Guyana would be a better society.  I am better.  National government is held in high esteem.

 At bottom, citizens make countries, decide on and evaluate national government. Their assessment carries the most weight.  There’s the survey, its findings.  The national government should resolve.  Separately, oil investors can expound freely, smartly, about Guyana’s democracy, and its sweet business environment.  But they themselves are held in the lowest repute by Guyanese. 

Next: trust and foreign oil companies, with Excellencies Woods and Routledge featuring prominently.

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

US Ambassador on Guyana’s Independence

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BY: GHK Lall

I really thought that the script had changed.  I really have to stop making these mistakes.  I erred about America’s regret over its role in changing the history of this country.  What could have been but now can never be known.  US Ambassador, Excellency Nicole D. Theriot, did the honors.  In an OP: Ed piece in Kaieteur News, this is what the now energetic and increasingly vocal American plenipotentiary had to say on Guyana’s Independence Diamond Jubilee: “I am honored to reflect on six decades of friendship, partnership, and shared progress between our two nations.  President Lyndon B. Johnson, welcoming Prime Minister Burnham to the White House just weeks after Guyana’s independence in July 1966, captured the spirit of that moment.”  I am sorry, Excellency, to be the party pooper.  But clinically, this must be dissected, dealt with cards face-up on the table.

President Johnson welcoming Prime Minister Burnham so shortly after Guyana gained Independence was the icing on America’s cake.  Recognition and reward for Guyana holding the line against the spread of communism.  Guyana is not contributing as one more fallen domino in the heat of the Big Power faceoff.  America’s AFL-CIO did its part.  So did America’s CIA and those it cultivated in the local environment to thwart communism’s march.  The PPP was then heart and soul for communism, Marxism, and socialism.  Thus, it lost out on that first battle.  Today, it is proud to count among its own, right up there in the Office of the President, those who were among communism’s (and Jagan’s) vilest enemies.  My word shouldn’t be taken.  The archives are there.

Without giving him any inch than I do, LFS Burnham did what he had to do to cultivate that “friendship and partnership” of which Ambassador Theriot spoke so engagingly, so lushly.  It came at a price, which he wasn’t ready to pay.  Regardless of what was and is still thought of him, there was a line that Mr. Burnham couldn’t and wouldn’t cross.  Not when country and people have to be betrayed and sold down the drain.  He became an enemy.  So, the script was scrubbed.

The PPP of Dr. Jagan first, then Dr. Jagdeo, studied that same script.  In this context, Dr. Ali is of no value, merely a hanger-on, who is in the right place and right time to be a beneficiary, one of the biggest.  Dr. Jagdeo more than Dr. Jagan decided that since the Americans couldn’t be beaten in a head-on fight, then beat them with tricks at their own game.  Become bigger capitalists than the capitalists themselves.  What can be bigger, brighter and more beautiful than “sanctity of contract?”  Now, there’s “friendship and partnership” of the kind that neither Burnham nor Jagan would ever kneel before, come within 100 years of considering, much less approving.  Pres Ali is the one doing the parroting about “sanctity of contract.”  But the credit belongs to Dr. Jagdeo.  When power and its consolidation and retention are part of the equation, then “sanctity of contract” is what it will have to be.

It is fasconating to watch Excellency Theriot manifest some of that famed Louisiana fire, when she lit that Independence bonfire about 60 years of “friendship and partnership.”  To whose advantage, to whose loss?  There is Exxon, redder and whiter and bluer than America.  More Golden Arrowhead nowadays than Guyanese.  Take a bow, Ambassador of Oil, Mr. Alistair Routledge.  With friends and partners of this caliber, I will take my chances with Dr. Guillotin.  It is better to lose my head for standing for what is believed.  It would be a crime inconceivable to join with those who hang themselves by the nuts from their betrayals of people and patrimony.  And for what, but the harlotry of power?  I urge my fellow Guyanese to review what it is that harlots do.  What they surrender.  What they sell.  And to whom they sell.  Those who come and go.  Those who take, then leave.  Whether corporate or country, this is the friendship and partnership between Guyana and America, as I see it, appalled by it, and am sickened by it.  Thanks, Ambassador Theriot for speaking to truth in a funny, most likely unwitting way.

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.

Broadway now the PPP Govt way

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BY: GHK Lall

Compliments of a stream of articles from the 592Guardian site, it is intriguing how the top dogs in the PPP Govt go about the serious business of leading a troubled nation.  A nation divided.  A nation that boasts of a capital city that turns into an aqueduct when it rains beyond a drizzle.  An inviting blue aqueduct such as a swimming pool would be welcomed.  But not, I think, an aqueduct of darkened waters well-nourished by mud, the overflow of drains, and whatever else garbage strewn roads contribute to the lakes that spring up after any downpour of length and strength.

It rains and PPP headmen come out and fan out.  The headwomen runout in their well-clad in Balenciaga and Este Lauder and Prada ensembles.  Remember the title of that show about Prada, and let it stick.  It rains and there’s a snapshot.  A portrait for Facebook and Guyana’s history books.  Take a close look and see for self: who cares, who’s there, and who shares in sun and rain.  Leaders of a special kind?  Or actors who know their lines and stay within the lines they must walk.  So as not to spoil the fresh, inspiring images of true leadership on exhibition.

What was done before the rains came?  Why do leaders come out and umbrellas go up only when an environmental condition blows up into a crisis?  Like a deluge of rainwaters in GT that leads to floodwaters swirling to the knees and creating broad seas everywhere that the eye can see.  By gum, this is the capital city of a rich, the richest (by some accounts), oil producing nation, six years and counting. 

I recall one leader before.  It should emphasize how much playing acting and role playing have become enmeshed in real-life situations, in leadership practices.  It should expose what calls for answers and actions and not Bollywood or Broadway extravaganzas.  A few years ago, there was the figure of the leader in the pre-sunup hours at the Meadow Bank wharf.  He was all hatted and cloaked (just like around the recent floodwaters).  He was well-umbrellaed (just like the past few days), while a hovering entourage of lackeys and hangers-on were around to complete the feed for government channels to expand their propaganda assaults.  Even prawns were volunteered, painted over, and arrayed in inviting bundles to present a perfect picture.  The lengths that leaders in this country go to sell unreal, unconvincing propaganda.

Propaganda that sells sheen and gloss.  But not the grime of dismal reality.  Propaganda that sells the swept and polished surface.  But not the great, big, ugly, mucky, stinky underbelly of GT and other neglected communities across Guyana that are a disgrace to Guyanese.  Six years of increasing daily oil production.  Six years of major portions of the oil money withdrawn.  Still, six years later, Guyanese must use a capital city where they have to remove their shoes, roll-up their pants, and brave the potholes, the rodents, and the traffic whenever it rains more than a passing shower.  Big government blame li’l government.  City government point a finger right back at Central government.  Citizens stuck in between lift a foot, raise a finger, drop their clothes and moon them both.

In this scene repeated with reasonable frequency, leaders and ministers run out, run around, and roundup the cameramen as though they are making a Cowboy movie.  They are.  Most likely a la Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles.  It might be flood or funeral, dam breakaway or political getaway, and there is a guarantee: a leader, a minister, with a sad face, sadder words, and the saddest spirits ever captured on video.  This is the bull that is sold to Guyanese by leaders and ministers.  This is the Award-winning performances that from leaders to losers (sorry for the duplication) present to citizens, and are allowed to keep repeating the same.  Political acting jobs is the biggest growth sector in Guyana, and offer the richest career opportunities.  When anyone sees a real public servant getting the vital jobs done, please share.  Broadway and Bollywood in action.

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

Press Freedom: fears, limitations, more fears

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Press freedom in Guyana is once again in the headlines, the consciousness of Guyanese. It’s time to raise the cudgelsseveral decibels. Now that the World Press
Freedom Index highlights Guyana’s continued slide into disrepute, the call is for another look, more inquiries. I reverse, then come forward.

During his first turn at the wheel, it was Pres Ali who immersed himself in political sanctimonies, while railing against criticism. Naysayers, media protestors,
constitutionally-inspired conscientious objectors and others he deemed undesirable soothsayers all came in for heavy condemnation. In Ali’s telling, he was all for
criticism, but only on the condition that it falls within the perimeters of what he termed ‘constructive criticism.’ I asked then, ask again: by what divine right of
presidents did Excellency Ali seize for himself the moral authority to impinge on what acceptable criticism is, is not, andshould be? To spotlight the president some more,
expose his frailty (his fallacy) longer, by what fig leaf of his imagination, by what token of intellectual gravitas, did he conjure what’s‘constructive criticism?’ And,
what made he, Irfaan Ali (PhD), the sole authority thereto?

Thereafter, the die was cast, hatchets brandished, messages communicated. It was open season on citizens exercising freedom of thought, freedom of belief (political not
religious), freedom of expression, and freedom to express such in every channel in this society, whether private enterprise, or publiclybacked. When State media doors
were slammed harder, sealed tighter, in the face of those who fell into one of Ali’s colorful denunciations, hunting season flourished. Victims bagged,hogtied from
head-to-toe. Though unexpected, it didn’t surprise that a Stabroek News would be visited by the PPP Govt’s Grim Reaper.

First, there were vice presidential railing and ranting about coverage and commentary, though today he seeks cover under the cloud of climate change. Then came the kiss
of death, a Jagdeo special that manifested his totalitarian tendencies, and communistic love for total control: no chopping off of ads. But eliminating, through clever non-
dispersal of tens of millions in ad payments. Was that a scheme that reeks of the Machiavellian, the politically sinister, or what? Meanwhile, there were those

individuals who spoke out being singled out for the PPP Govt’s Saturday Nite Special: a two-by-four to the skull. One captain calling for the constructive; another
far cleverer biding his time, while working feverishly, to deliver his coup de grace: no submission and cooperation, no consideration and no compassion. Said more
colloquially: no money. no love. I am still trying to figure out the legal equation, the constitutional formula, that Minister of Law, Order, and PPP Justice, Mr. Anil
Nandlall, employs as the basis for this overreach, the assassins’excesses. Or why what is demanded for the PPP is denied to others. How could it be that what the PPP
claims as piety for itself is damned as heresy in others. Another for Ali and Nandlall: Stabroek stopped. Now stop social media. Guyanese truckers crying against
impoverishing Chinese invasions.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, the Ali-Jagdeo-Nandlall government insists that it cherishes press freedom, is a welcoming, comforting, lighthouse to press wanderers,
media shipwrecked, and freedom’s outcasts. It must be recalled that the Third Reich always insisted that the gods were on its side. Some gods those must have been! I
sympathize withExcellency Ali, doctor of overstatement, and heavily overburdened worker. But to give Lords of the Guyana Realm, Jagdeo and Nandlall, a pass, is
asking too much. If they’re ignorant, I help: the deeper the oppression, the stronger the conviction. Conclusion: methinks that those who object to light and truth must be
messengers of darkness, hypocrisies foremost heroes. Thus, press freedom, (freedom itself), falters, fades, in PPP Guyana. if they don’t know, those who labored to narrow
the boundaries of argument and dissent have invariably self-destructed. Press freedoms, other freedoms, are matters of principle; neither leadership luxuries nor
benevolence.