The Ali Farm -Fish, Fowl, and Foals -Pt IV

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The 592 Guardian◊Accountability Journalism◊ July 2026

The –Fish, Fowl, and Foals -Pt IV

Pres Ali has contributed to the broadening story of blackbelly sheep, prime cattle, land and a mindboggling array of other rich attractions.  I thank the president, commend him.  Now I share some words of my own on what’s part farm, part estate, part futuristic model, part politics, part commerce, and part of many unknowns.

First, on such a gargantuan development, the president may not be the only investor and overseer.  He may have company, a pantheon of illustrious names and personalities.  Who else among locals, who from foreign shores, have hand and interest in this business of shrimp, shrub, and so much more that captivates the mind?

Second, for a project of this monstrous expanse, much seed money and maintenance (operational) money had to go into it.  To get it going, to keep it going.  From the revelations, the millions multiplied by the hundreds, then rolled into the billions.  Those dollar numbers look plausible, even though on the lean and mean side.   From where that money came?  Who are the people with that kind of money?  Those are two of the first questions that stir.

For color, I recall how many regional and international kingmakers came to Guyana during that distressing 2019-20 time.  Some were already resident here.  Many Guyanese should recall how they involved themselves way beyond the dictates of protocol, etiquette, and accepted norms in Guyana’s politics and its domestic brawls.  Unprecedented and highly unusual, I assert.  Further, in the years since 2020, some past senior diplomatic presences have returned here in different capacities. 

Either as head of official delegations; or more stealthily.  Probably to sidestep local radars. 

Do they have any proximity, any type of association, to this Great Animal Farm deep inside the Linden Highway?  Were their involvements in the 2020 fiasco part of their initial down payments? 

With their own spreadsheets and calculators held in reserve.  Speaking for myself, I am convinced that this stunning animal farm, currently mentioned alongside his name only, is bigger than Guyana’s Pres Ali.

Third, it is surprising that there is a project with its grandiose sprawl, with all of its possibilities, is in full swing, and former president Bharrat Jagdeo is a seemingly disinterested and disengaged party.  Quite abnormal for a character of his proportions, I think.  And not to forget his history with projects of stature.

Fourth, all Guyana is aware of how big and committed Dr. Jagdeo and the PPP are on agriculture.  The sidelines and silence do not fit into the mold.  Not when there is a megaproject of this magnificence, and with agriculture and aquaculture all the rage.  Not having a say, and not knowing of this way so well-mapped out, does strike differently.  These are among the tips of the iceberg not yet sticking their noses above water.

Fifth, I recall that some blackbelly sheep were part of a country-to-country (Barbados to Guyana) transaction a few years back.  The blackbelly sheep reported on Pres Ali’s farm: are they from that flock or some other source?

Sixth, that mega-farm, a conglomerate by any reckoning, should have, as a matter of sound business practice, the export market in mind.  Quality products for quality people in quality places and at quality prices.  Scale is what matters.  I am thinking a port and an airstrip have to be part of the farm program to complete the circle.  And, considering the size of this great field of endeavor, I cannot help thinking of who, besides, President Ali, have set themselves up for some rich harvesting.  Guyanese do well to hold close to this formula: 25 X 2025 + 5.  I translate: Food security level by a stated deadline (now past), but with another half decade attached to accommodate delivery.

Last: what else could be in this Ali Animal Farm?  Plenty, I think.

Pres Ali: Be wise, Go beyond the Norm -Pt III

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THE 592 GUARDIAN ◊ACCOUNTABILITY◊OBJECTIVITY◊JOURNALISM FOR GUYANA 

Pres Ali: Be wise, Go beyond the Norm -Pt III

The disclosures pinpointed monumental asset accumulations with Pres Ali’s name immovably affixed.  He has acknowledged that the farm property is his.  A great start.  So also, all the inanimate structures, and all the thriving, exotic, life forms, that form part of a physical animal farm.  He admits they have been in his portfolio for years.  Years prior to his ascendancy to the number one office in Guyana.  It’s not an office to be trifled with: many citizens revere the very title.  Even seen by some as sacred.  Due to the developments now moving like an out-of-control avalanche around this much-talked about farm, and not in a good way, Pres Ali has his work cut out for him.  He must go all out to protect the presidency.  He must leave no stone unturned in his efforts to help the presidency emerge from a grim condition to a clean light.                                                                                       

One that’s better than when this deluge of revelations shocked Guyanese silly, and left them stunned.  My kind counsel to the president is that he proves he has nothing to hide.  And because he has nothing to fear, there will only be the straightest, cleanest, and most persuasive of outcomes about this farm. 

Neither subterfuge nor complexity will intervene in the days ahead.

In the aftermath of Mr. Azruddin Mohamed’s disclosures, it’s vital that Pres Ali discerns that he has a matter before him that calls for the best that’s in him.                                     He defends himself strongly, while manifesting new levels of wisdom.  The wisdom that goes beyond himself.  Place this whole matter, Mr. President, in the hands of others.  Others outside of Guyana.  He is the sitting head-of-state.  Hence, it is not in the best interests of himself and Guyana for this matter to be reviewed and pronounced upon by Guyanese.  Wrong move. 

A local study/inquiry of what’s now public would invite contentiousness.  Over what appears artificial.  About what looks like a whitewash.  Past appointed local bodies have attracted endless criticisms re their terms of reference, procedures, actual probes. 

 They have raised more questions and controversy than provided answers and closure.  Recommendation: place this locally insoluble matter in foreign hands.  For full disclosure of the facts, as tracked and treated.  From how they came into existence, to identification of all involved parties.

It would help immensely if the Integrity Commission Act is amended to allow disclosure of submissions in situations such as these.  Frankly,, I do not support any arrangement where the assets of politicians are kept secret.  This would cover from their earnings to their acquisitions to their liquidations.  Further, any amended Integrity Commission Act must provide for a majority of its members to be drawn from civil society, as nominated by civil society.  From that majority a chair is chosen.  Of what strength, what utility is a chair, chosen by a government, when a member of that same government, has to be scrutinized?

President Ali, any politician, any public servant, has a right to mount the most vigorous defense when claims are made about their conduct in office.  I endorse that to the fullest. 

Using the same standard, the public, the taxpayer, the electorate, is entitled to an inquiry that is hoped to be authentic, appears to be authentic, and is authentic.  In its probity.  In the quality of its work and output.  In the confidence that it inspires.  There is a system.  It is working and it delivers.

I wish Pres Ali well.  I wish also that he would be most seriously engaged in allowing full ventilation of what is encircled and embedded in his farm cum estate.  Through those wishes, I think that much could be achieved.  The air must be cleared.  So that this matter is put to rest., once and for all.

 

President Ali Should Not Stand in His own Defense

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Pres Ali should not stand in his own defense

Pres Ali has had a considerable amount of work to do as a leader. The work of being a defender of his own people. Comrades and ministers who have raised questions, suspicions, condemnations. Lands. Assets. Riches. Lapses leading to what has looked less than righteous. Not quite, not anywhere near, the up and up. How did they come into so many emblems of wealth in such a short space of time? How out of nothing there is so much of so many opulent gems? Those are on the material, the tangible, side. The president has also served as defender-in-chief of those who allegedly erred morally and grievously. Through what led to great emotional stigmas and traumas to the weak and vulnerable of Guyana.

In fact, it would be closer to the wicket, to assert that Excellency Ali appointed himself to the role of serial defender-in-chief for his own. The old me would have said, he arrogated unto himself what did not belong. The old gives way to the new.

Now, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, master defender, and defender of first call and last resort, for PPP Govt notables, for PPP Govt slippers and tricksters and impostors, has a matter before him that calls for the best of him. He must make a defense. Vast lands. Prized herds. Lavish architecture. Lush arrangements. In his favor, from his first response(s), Pres Ali has identified a line of planks that he insists stand in defense of his holdings.     All fair. All square. All due to the works of fresh air, clean hands. I commend him. I would commend him more if he takes to heart what’s now recommended. For though he must defend himself, he cannot be the sole defender of himself.

First, Pres Ali should consult with his learned and honorable Attorney General, Senior Counsel, Anil Nandlall. His advice should be swift in coming. He who stands as counsel for himself has chosen a fool for counsel. Respectfully inserted into the public record, of course. The president is not on trial. Of that let me be clear. But he cannot stand in the public dock as a trier of his own facts. For the edification of the Guyanese people, I repeat the recommendation made in Demerara Waves on Sunday, July 5 (“Mr. Mohamed asserted; Pres Ali rejected, should do more”). Not an easy call. But what sound judgement and the call of circumstances compel.

Pres Ali has made his initial verbal defenses. Now, he has a duty to follow-up. He must produce his package of corroborating evidence. In all of its slips of paper. In all of its documents and statements from official and commercial sources.                            In the impeccable nature of his estate and ranch story. And in its entirety. Half-measures will not be enough. Half-cocked and half of the story will not suffice. They will fuel more fury, lead to more of the uneasy. For, after all the clamors and curses, this is more than Irfaan Ali on the wire and making the news. This is about the office of the presidency of Guyana.

At a time, when the world is its watching and listening audience. When the world of investors and other interested parties sit around the table as its tribunal.

 Recent history has furnished evidence of Pres Ali developing a veritable cottage industry of his own. Its primary business has been defending his own stumblers. Snatching their feet from consuming fires. Then, massaging them back to some life. It has been a scarred and tainted and odious life. For a secondary servant or a dozen, that may be overlooked. But not for the supreme servant of the people of Guyana in whose hands so must has been placed, so much entrusted.

The short and long, the sweet and sour (and savaging) is that Pres Ali cannot and should not stand in his own defense. In this instance of land and billions, as alleged, such action on his part would be measured as dubious, found wanting. In the circumstances, this whole matter involving what the president has insisted is the result of years of industry and integrity belongs in the domain of open-air inspection and the most thorough dissection.

It is my humble duty to offer this counsel my commander-in-chief.

WAS THAT REALLY NECESSARY? EXCELLENCY ALI

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Was that really necessary? Excellency Ali?

Pres Ali is a disappointment. A bigger and bigger one, sadly. No learning from slippages. Barging ahead, unthinkingly. Blame rests on his advisers, handlers. Their duty is to protect the president. From himself. It was the Fourth. Not an ordinary one. But the soaring, sprawling celebration of 250 years of cherished American liberty. U.S. Ambassador, Excellency Nicole D. Theriot had her say, said it well. On taking the podium, Guyana’s Pres Ali started out on the right foot, then his compass gyrated. A stumbling came. Rather ghastly, I think. Sullying an extraordinary moment. Imperiling to the ambience of more delicate sensibilities. Foreign ones mostly; local ones faded way back.

“In Guyana today, we are accustomed to seeing people walk on examples and still criticize.” Seriously, Excellency? Was that really necessary, Mr. President? Throwing a tantrum, stamping feet, before assembled guests of the ambassador (and Guyana, also). Unseeming, ungracious, and uncouth. Disturbingly so. I try with my president. Efforts to set him on the right path are usually brushed off, mocked. It’s why the people who come from what Guyanese call the ‘outside’ look down their noses on the natives.

Pres Ali may lull himself into thinking that he is excluded from such a put-down. He would be shocked. Foreigners humor him because of Guyana’s oil kingdom. He is a keyholder.

  Aw shucks man it was the 250 th celebration of an honored presence. Therefore, wrong time and wrong place to curse critics. Wrong occasion to banish Guyanese parasites to some specially constructed PPP Govt gulag. What kind of a man, one who should be an example for society, goes into a glittering gathering and growls? Does a man enter a birthday bash, bumps everybody out of the way, and blasts away? To display the bile and acids (maybe stored toxins, I muse) that fester inside of him. It’s a democracy, Brother Ali. Ideals include freedom to think and freedom to speak. Remember, skipper?

The very celebration that the president graced (used guardedly) with his ennobling and enrobed presence stands as a singular testimony. To bold men and women who treasured freedom from the suffocation of a Crown, and did something about it. The King of England could have claimed to be a recipient of the divine right of kings. To rule and to tax. Revolutionary Americans didn’t give a damn about any such self-assigned sacredness (sanctity), refused to prostrate themselves, grovel. Real men, real leaders, rise and roar their resistance in such times.                                          I would appreciate if someone in the government would connect the dots, if wise enough; then, present to Excellency Ali, with my compliments.

Guyana is now an oil power. A country among countries. Though many of its citizens are starving, which the president rejects, Guyana is now the going place. Foreigners are galloping to get here before others. To grab their share of Guyana’s riches. Thus, would be immensely beneficial to this country’s standing, if its head-of-state comports himself like a, well, genuine head-of-state. One overflowing with confidence, and with just the right dash of the debonair. That is, in the stateliest of fashions at all times.

Having delivered his verbal volley, maturity and the decorum of true statesmanship required Pres Ali to call it quits, and immerse himself in the ambassador’s hospitality. Instead, Guyana’s headman chose to deposit another verbal sledge, when he praised the ambassador for working “relentlessly behind cameras, behind the noise, quietly.” Noise, chief! Clearly, the president can’t help himself. His spitefulness (“noise”) must be vented. What point is proved, Dr. President? American ambassadors don’t need applause from Guyanese presidents. They do just what Her Excellency is doing. Carry America’s flag. Sell America’s brand.

I humbly recommend that Pres Ali use that example and order some of his own ambassadors to stop making utter fools of themselves and do some real work. For the record: happy Fourth to Excellency Theriot and the team.

THE BOOK OF JUDGES : REVEALING, RIVETING

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THE 592 Guardian.♦Accountability♦Objectivity ♦Truth                   

The Book of Judges –Revealing, Riveting-July 2026

The Bible is out.  It’s Guyana’s Book of Judges.  What a book, it is.  Like the Bible not referred to, there are good judges and a heap of bad judges.  Life.  Get used to it.  Most of all, there’s a place called Guyana.  Ever heard of it?  Better that didn’t happen.  Spare the senses, help the faculties endure much longer.

I don’t know where Guyanese get their ideas.  The politics got them bad, pushed them overboard

Try these.  First example, whoever said a judge has to be faultless, meaning, infallible, needs an immediate head x-ray.  Even Roman Catholic popes are not infallible.  Notwithstanding old pronouncements to the contrary over a century and a half ago.  If not Vicars of Christ, then it’s clear that expectations are too high for Guyanese judges.  What Guyanese may have in mind for local judges fits the mold of England’s Lord Mansfield and Lord Wilberforce.  Or America’s Oliver Wendell Holmes and Charles Evan Hughes.  They don’t make like them anymore.  Like JOF Haynes and Akbar Khan from right here.  Hence, I recommend that my fellow Guyanese come back down to earth.  Settle for Justice Clarence Thomas.  See how quickly this country is returned to the days of slavery (if it already isn’t).  Think a luminous jurist with the prowess of Justice Clarence Thomas would ever rule against American gladiators and New York Stock Exchange darlings, such as Exxon and Chevron.  Think again.

There’s America.  There’s England.  There is Guyana.  Things are a little peculiar here.  This is PPP Guyana.  The lid just collapsed on everything.  Perverse and profane are the fittest, most proper words.  Who cares about charges?  Since when did that matter to the PPP brain trust?  By the way, it’s a one-brain brain trust?  I am open to challenge, any enlightenment.  On both counts.  In a society where favoritism, cronyism, and nepotism are all at rampant levels, it is fascinating that so many Guyanese are still stuck at who’s related to whom.  Or was.  Take it for granted.  Move on.  The PPP has continuously proved that it’s a legacy entity.  Money passed on.  Assets handed down.  From father to son, mother to daughter, those have all been prominent parts of an enduring kith and kin culture.  Count on critical support from me.  It’s what my position on the appointment of judges with conspicuous political lineage.  None can say they don’t know where I stand.

Convictions, relations, connections, all are part of the same closed and intricate PPP spider’s web.  Outsiders are out.  Logically, where else can they be, since out is out?  I am bewildered.  Not blue; at least, not yet.  Guyanese just must manage themselves in a more responsible manner.  Old judges, recent judges, new judges, and temporary judges, what do citizens expect when they study these people?  I hope it’s not the voice of god from heaven gushing from them, man or woman. 

Where he or she is pronouncing about the last days and Judgement Day.  Or, taking a step lower, as fountains of wisdom, graced by traces of celestial intellect. In other words, the presence of those who brook neither interference nor resistance.  No questioning, objecting, differing.  Thus, I have spoken.  Thus, it shall be.  Adjudicated.  Over.

Sorry to deflate anyone’s balloon, help them return from space.  Judges are regular human beings.  A few are brighter and hardworking.  Quite a few are dumber than barbells and lazy as hell.  Judges partake of the fare of the dining room.  They visit the bathroom and read newspapers.  What they do with the latter when in the former, that’s not my business.  I must say, though, that the PPP has the business of the judiciary where it wants it.  From Judicial Service Commission to judicial service selections, everything is under control.  My hang-ups are straightforward.  If this is the grass, then what does that say about the weeds.  Those aspiring judges that didn’t make the cut. If these are Guyana’s best then this country had better start praying. 

My conviction.  My conclusion.

2026 MID-YEAR REPORT

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2026 Midyear Report –Pt II

A new year. The beginning of a second consecutive term. It was hailed as the dawning of a new era. Supposedly, that third rail in politics that electrifies towards glorious leadership and governance deeds. In surveying the landscape, there are indications of what will be going forward.

A big, boisterous national budget. One bawdier than past blasts. Just bursting with dollars: $1.5 trillion plus. A million in today’s PPP

Guyana is now ‘keep-the-change’ money. Perhaps, one tennis roll that doesn’t have to be taken on ‘trust’. Credit

 At the rate that these national budgets are spiraling, with a trillion comfortably scaled, a billion could soon go the way of a million. That is, small change and fine bangamary money.
Is Guyana heading the way of World War I Germany? Despite all the government’s comforting talk of inflation under control? Guyanese poor don’t know about inflation. They know starvation. Another big budget lauded. But there’s that dark side of Oil Guyana that the oil-enriched PPP Govt shuns talking about. Amidst ballooning daily oil production, there’s the darkness of deep, widespread destitution.

The government and its paid cheerleaders (private sector compensated differently) were ecstatic with the record-breaking budget in February. Four months later, it was time to ask for what poor workers call a ‘raise’, some overtime help, that li’l extra. Officially, Guyanese savor impressive, innocent sounding names: Financial Paper and Supplementary Budget. An anemic needs a supplement, that boost to shake off the lethargy to get him going. However tentatively.
Four months after the big party held a bigger party over Guyana’s biggest budget (yet), it was in need of the energy from a $55 billion supplement. A real supplement, or a PPP Govt on destructive steroids? Whatever it was or is, the supplements (budgets) will have to keep coming.

In the first half of 2026, the PPP Govt boasted about Guyana’s towering, inspiring democracy. The Americans, British, Canadians, and Europeans had to huff and puff to get parliament reconvened. Speaker Manzoor Nadir couldn’t find the keys, or his nerves. Minister Gail Texeira couldn’t find her voice or feet; couldn’t find in time the right lines in her script.

The PPP’s Dr. Cheddi Jagan had developed a cottage industry around walking out of parliament. Today’s Jagan’s PPP descendants have created an industry of stopping Guyanese elected from walking into parliament

From Down with America! it is Thank God for America. And BC& E, of course. The claim is that Guyana’s self-sufficient. Oil. The reality is that Guyana under the yoke of the PPP is self-destructive.

Some youngster, reportedly closely linked to PPP royalty, allegedly damaged property belonging to Guyanese. The palace turned off the lights, went quiet. The police followed suit. Into this vacuum, stepped Pres Ali, after donning his now well-worn Minister of Defense robes to deliver the protective: why the noise? There’s no issue.                                                          Responsible people, mature parenting, and sober judgment are at work. Pres Ali is better off being a pope. One who could see the devil, then forget and forgive the details.
If this is rule of law and respect for law and order, I’m better off with the subcontinent’s Modi or North Korea’s Kim. Guyanese would be, too. Anil Nandlall should share insights on this chapter of rule of law, and his president’s practice of it, in his next Facebook trash talking session.

Right next door, Venezuelans closed out the first half of 2026 in tragic, wrenching despair, when a series of devastating earthquakes struck. Guyanese rightly extended words of harmony and humanity.
I do the same for my fellow Guyanese living right here. They live with daily political and environmental earthquakes that rock them, then ravage them. A piteous presidency. A putrid set of political hustlers and scavengers.
After each local earthquake, the PPP sniffs around to see what more it can grab for itself. The good news is that the first half is over; the past is past. The bad news is that there are six months left. Therein lie opportunities for many more tragedies and exploitations of regular Guyanese.

One last thing: to my fellow American and their fellow travelers: a joyous Fourth.

2026 1st HALF, LEADERSHIP. GOVERNANCE

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 THE 592 GUARDIAN. GOVERNANCE♦ACCOUNTABILITY

2026 1st Half: Leadership, Governance

The first half of 2026 is over.  It’s really 10 months, a few days shorted.  I’m counting that Guyana’s New Era began with Pres Ali’s second inaugural.  Did he do better?  Did governance in Guyana climb out of its hole?  If so, was there a first step forward or many backwards?  

Or, given governance and leadership characters, did Guyanese get the wayward?  The sideways culture now normalized?

 Prime Minister Mark Anthony Phillips once a soldier, is now a political guerilla fighter.  More for party, less about country.  With that handle, Mark Anthony, he could be a Roman orator or a Puerto Rican singer.  Not he.  Let it be: a proud, honorable Guyanese.  Salutations, Marshall.  Not fire, think field.  PM Mark Anthony stood in Guyana’s equivalent of the Roman Forum, and perorated.  Stabroek News will be taken care of soon.  A man truer to his word there never was.  Stabroek News was taken care of, the PPP and Mark Phillips way: it died and was buried.  No resurrection.  

There’s regard for men of honor.  Leadership and governance, Guyana style, the PPP wiles.  I like.

 Another leader, one given to the garrulous and grandiose, is Guyana’s Master Governor.  Whoever never heard of Excellency Ali is a failed AI experiment.  In 2020, six years ago, not six months (or ten), Master Governor Ali swore to transparency and accountability.  For Guyanese to get access to information, they have to get valid passport, FBI clearance, U.S. visa, and a red shirt.  Naysayers, critics, and parasites are excluded.  No matter what they have.  Or what the law says.  Pres Ali in fits of the fanciful said that’s not his cup of tea.  British teaching.  Like Pontius Pilate, Irfaan Ali washed his hands clean of the vulgar access to info affair.  It’s Guyana’s Profumo Affair.  It’s Leadership 601.  Taught in the schools of Mao Zedong, Indira Gandhi, Narendra Modi, DJ Trump, and Benjamin Netanyahu.  Guyana’s Ali learned well.

Incidentally, he swore to unity in 2020.  One Guyana still birthed.  IDPADA-G almost died.  The people at Mocha got sanitized.  Some losing folks get a basketball.  Others got shot.  Seems a funny kind of unity, to me.

In September 2025 (Inaugural Palaver II), he promised an anti-corruption czar.  The people at Office of the President, Freedom House, and major procurement outfits had serious cases of diarrhea.  Their world almost ended.  Wiser heads prevailed.                                                                Chatter about anticorruption czar disappeared.  And, it’s only midyear.  See, why like PM Mark Anthony, there’s such regard for HE Ali!  PM Mark Anthony and Office of the Prime Minister are still in this gospel.  They also had a fit when Excellency Ali swore to go after peddlers of misinformation and disinformation.  Somebody gave him Confucius’ masterpiece: the hardest, the longest, journey begins with the first step.  Dr. Ali has been treating himself for cramps, since September 2025. 

Misinformation and disinformation, he discovered belatedly (or cleverly) is a PPP Govt monopolized, subsidized, and oversized business. 

 Bigger than Exxon.  Have concerns about Silica City?  Roll them, then smoke them.  Need to know how all the oil money was spent?  AK Singh has a machinegun called “national development priorities.”  A load of buckshot mixed with bull-s*** sprayed on Guyanese.  Who to watch more: Venezuelans with AK-47s or AK Singh with his scholarly arsenals?  This is leadership.  This is governance.

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo took a sabbatical post September 2025.  It was his own 9/11 great escape.  Reimages himself as Steve McQueen.  Who to put for 2030?  Policymaker or kingmaker?  Queenmaker isn’t a stretch.  Spoke of resuming his press conferences.  His handlers whispered: not the greatest idea.  PPP dirty laundry all hung out to dry.  Don’t make self a spectacle to deliver cheap shots.  The White people are appalled, shrink in disbelief (disgust also).  They have weight.  They count.  Cease and desist with all the carrying on and disgracing party, Cheddi, and the Yanquis.  Decency reigned; 2030 strategy priority took over.  Anil Nandlall couldn’t feature.  Not after the CCJ extradition embarrassment.  Though partially redeeming himself at the ICJ.  

Fellow Guyanese -the book on 2026, its midpoint.  Great news!  The second half looks identical.

MINISTER INDAR ECSTATIC MANIFESTATIONS

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THE 592 GUARDIAN♦ ACCOUNTABILITY JOURNALISM

Minister Indar’s Ecstatic Manifestations

Minister Indar unwittingly got himself into a fine pickle.  In talking about negotiations with the Turkish electricity barge executives, he ventured into the realm of incomprehensible ecstatic manifestations. 

Our government led by President Ali, we made sure that we took some strong positions on negotiation.”

I am awed by unrestrained merriment that took hold of the honorable minister.  Apparently, Minister Indar is more the Minister of Public Comedies than he is as Minister of Public Utilities.  I humbly petition Excellency Ali to do his duty.  Make it official, please, Mr. President: Reappoint Deodat Indar to the Minister of National Hilarity portfolio.

When has our government led by Pres Ali…made sure that we took some strong positions on negotiation             

Because it is my government and my president, I search for such a record, hold both accountable.  To my fellow Guyanese: Seen as many Cuban medical personnel recently?  Check in Havana or Guantanamo. 

And there stands the government’s self-celebrating position of taking

The PPP Govt, as led by Pres Ali, took a strong position on deportees.  Not those who hailed from Demerara, Berbice and, (yes) Essequibo.  But those from far and farther away.  But then not even those that the government would be proud to invite to dinner at State House.  If the PPP wouldn’t welcome them at Congress, then they shouldn’t be in this country.  Game over.  Except that this isn’t a game. 

Hence, when Marco Rubio came sailing here like Christopher Columbus on his new voyage of discovery, he should have been given a return ticket there and then.  Take that message about third country deportees, and stuff it, buster.  How about that for taking a strong position on negotiation.  Gimme some Cubans doctors, and Guyana is duty bound to take in some Guyanese deportees.The U.S. milked them in their prime.  The U.S. must drink them in their grime and brine.

The Canadian gold people came here.  They put in a dollar and get an acre.  Thousands of acres.  From the small dollars invested, they swap out, flip over, and switch around those same now rich gold acres to new parties.  A million for a hundred more.  Sweet odds, lavish returns.  What strong position the PPP Govt, as led by Excellency Ali?  It happened once -nothing.  It happened again – no reaction from the Ali-led PPP Govt (again).  Some kind of special position and exceptional negotiation is that, from Minister Indar.  The foreign gold people pulled that one once.  Therefore, it made perfect financial sense (and leadership ones, too) to take a truly strong position and put a stopper in that loophole.  The situation cried out for that form of justice.  Like the blood of Abel cried out for recompense when the hand of a brother was raised fatally.  It was against what taints, even tampers, with the fabric of friendship.  What ought to have been a strong position taken (as led by Pres Ali) for a respectful relationship between Guyana and investors who rush here to grab a load of free gold.

I regret that in extoling the PPP Govt’s virtues: strong positions and the leadership of Dr. Ali, re negotiations, Minister Indar gave short thrift to history, and delighted himself with comedy.                                                                                                            Surely, he has to know that when he gleams with words like those that he descends into the old, soggy territory: what’s recklessly merry, of rank hilarity.  I think that Minister Indar has a second career waiting.  A master jester.  Hailed for making his mark as a determined, but still unskilled, entertainer.                         The PPP Govt seems to spawn them by the hundreds every week it’s in office.

THE 592 GUARDIAN♦ACCOUNTABILITY JOURNALISM 

ILLNESS AND DEATH,THEN MORE SICKNESS, DEATH-LIKE STATES

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THE 592 GUARDIAN♦ ACCOUNTABILITY JOURNALISM♦JUNE 2026                                                                                  ILLNESS AND DEATH, THEN MORE SICKNESS, DEATHLIKE STATE

I met Mr. Don Singh just once. Stopped and shared a few minutes in pleasant conversation. Whatever his politics, my impression was of a decent fellow. When the news of his sudden illness came, it was a surprise. Now that he has left these shores, may his soul rest in peace. To his biological family, my condolences on what has to be a hard loss. To his political family, regrets at losing a formidable worker. And, to my regret, whenever I make the mistake of thinking that things can’t get worse in this country, sink to more depraved depths, they do.

I struggle to understand how some can find joy in a man’s illness. A political man, a prince of a man, poor man, or a man who may have made himself, or be seen as, an enemy, it does not matter. There is ugly and there is ugly. To chortle privately on receiving the news of sickness is bad enough. To celebrate sickness in the vast public space of social media is degrading to an unfathomably dreadful level. It’s a sickness of a terrible kind by itself. Guyanese have really sunk to the bottom of a bottomless pit. When the savaging politics of this land of barbarians takes precedence over basic humanity, and day-to-day decency. I don’t care who is involved, so I say it now, and will say it forever. Whoever finds laughter, a time to engage in mockery, and an opportunity to kick a man, during a time of serious illness, that is one sick puppy. Sick in the head. Sick to the soul. And so sick and so callously indifferent that may have already died.

It is at times like these that I am glad to hold what is for me a prized outsider status.

Not trapped and warped by the prejudices that power local politics. Not condemned to the garbage dumpsite where ancient political grudges fester and flourish. There is so much hating, the call to forgiving may now be forever lost.

Guyanese are ghosts inside a skeleton that is overloaded and overflowing with a stream of poisons that find escape and the worst expressions when there is a human tragedy. Who is so base they see an enemy during those painful moments of loss and human catastrophe? I cast my eyes across to Venezuela and devastating earthquakes of this and that magnitude, and a full body shiver runs amok. Guyanese are so fortunate when the licks and kicks of providence were allocated. Perhaps that explains why the people of this country are so cursed. By the irresistible pull of their politics hurling them towards all that they have come to know: gutter reactions. Such was what stalked the news of Mr. Don Singh’s illness.

Now that he is gone to his creator, there was a moment for many of the social media warriors to regroup and recollect themselves. Having had a good laugh at sickness, the news of the man’s death was a line not to be crossed. Except that it was. The unbreachable breached. Treating self with profanity and vulgarity amid threnodies of grieving. Guyanese do wear their disgrace on their sleeves. All self-respect hollowed out and proudly displayed on the altar of political frenzies that burn at higher and higher pitches.

Seeing that sickness and death are causes for ostentatious displays of ignorance, it is no wonder that living has become such a corrosive burden in this divided, raucous, self-defeating society.

I behold Guyanese, who are committed to tearing apart and bringing down each other. It is all in the name of the wrenching and divisive politics that have haunted this land, in times of peace and relative quiet. Thus, I cringe in thinking of how citizens may be to fellow citizens in times that are hostile and more hateful. Often, I am glad that, though many a thought is shared in public spaces, there is still rebuffing getting any closer. The armor that protects. The safety net that upholds sanity.

May the soul of this brother, Don Singh, find eternal rest.

AK-47s: Guyanese Must Know More

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THE 592 GUARDIAN.♦ ACCOUNTABILITY JOURNALISM

AK-47s: Guyanese Must Know More

JUNE 2026 BY: GHK LALL

A top PPP Govt worker said that the government was always tracking, in the know.  Everything under control.  In hand, a total of 33 AK-47s.  Not toy guns.  Neither air rifles nor water pistols.  But machines of mass destruction.  Yet, the man reassured Guyanese that the government was on the job.  No need to worry.  It’s then that Guyanese must worry.  What don’t they know?  What is their government not telling them?  And why?  To darken the near perfect visibility that one senior government man spoke of, another senior government official weighed in with “our ports are porous.”  Not that Guyana’s borders are porous.  But that “our ports are porous.”

Question One: is this an admission that those local equivalents of nukes entered through ports so open that they might as well be unmanned?  So non-interfering relative to being non-intrusive outposts that they don’t serve as deterrent or prohibition against the entry of machine-guns?  A machine-gun isn’t an unlicensed weapon.  When with civilians, it’s a prohibited weapon.  For good reason.  Think of a squad of men armed to the teeth with machine-guns rolling up before a Guyanese Police Station.  Think of other small companies, three or five of them, with machine-guns primed for action, in one or several opulent communities in Guyana, and with evil intentions.  I pause.  No interest in agitating fellow citizens.  Interested, though, in alerting all to the risks and exposures, and leave others to ponder these questions.

Why is the government so casual?  Behaving as though the discovery of 33 AK-47s is ordinary.  Unworthy of much urgency.  I’m all for not panicking the population.  Definitely against, on the other, minimizing by pooh-pooing the implications of these destructive armaments abounding in Guyana.  From my perspective, the government is too clever.  Its people far too nifty with soothing words.  In the current circumstances, the rawness of potential dangers must be in the public domain.  With the safety and peace of mind of Guyanese at risk, it is time for the chief national security officer of Guyana, Pres Ali, to inform the nation what the government has, where the government stands.  Two hauls totaling 33 AK-47s do not represent routines. 

The firepower and destructive power make it imperative for Pres Ali to give a statement in his own voice about the implications of these two busts, where the clues point.

One thread is the Venezuelan link.  Syndicato or Tren de Aragua?  State-sponsored or mercenaries for hire?  If the latter, then who are their recruiters and paymasters?  If not either of those two, whose interests are jeopardized (or enhanced)?  What restrains the hand of the PPP Govt?  From divulging the full story.  When the interests of the State are under threat, the public must know.  Their safety is intimately wrapped up in such threats.  Thus, Guyanese should know more.  If, however, the interests of the PPP are under siege, then Guyanese will get what they get, which is nothing.  Could this be part of what has produced such easy nonchalance from government leaders on these developments?  When Guyanese are uncomfortable, their government leaders shouldn’t be as comfortable as they have been. 

Relative to the Opposition, it perplexes that its leaders are not all over these arms bust and the ominous potential of them.

Last, there’s a Guyanese connection that flits on and off the radar.  Smooth as silk, and slipperier than an eel.  An oil-coated one.  What to make of that setup that has a long history of engagement.  Usually followed by evasion.  Clearly, that calls for a tremendous amount of muscle.  Lots of pull and plenty of clout.  Groundbreaking and far-reaching, I would say.  There is much more to this machinegun business than meets the eye.  Kamla is coming up next: protecting her people.