HE Ali -updated sketch: a leader in shreds -Part I

592 GUARDIAN ACCOUNTABILITY INTEGRITY IN JOURNALISM♦GUYANA

HE Ali -updated sketch: a leader in shreds -Part I

OPINION BY: GHK LALL September 2026

Pres Ali has degraded to a sad figure. A leader out of touch. The closer he gets, the more he’s lost. A man flaying at windmills. All made by his hand. A tribute to his creativity. He is that caliber of hip-hop performer. He sees himself as a star. I see a dark star, a crashing one. Like a blimp that soared high, only to crash nose down back to earth. Such is vanity; the tragedy of the haughty

In this newest sketch of Guyana’s president, three areas are brightly highlighted. A farm tucked behind his porous hedges; it weighs heavily on his head. He said he built it from scratch. The scratch marks prove his involvement. But how? And who else? Regarding acreage, the claim is of only so much. The president had his surveyor’s license -less than half of what’s said. Either somebody doesn’t know to count; or their mapping ability is at the nursery school level. Crayons and coloring books. Homework in shambles. Classwork of dubious quality. Low marks for lack of effort, lack of credibility. Who has it wrong? Who has more face to lose? Who could care less?

The president’s paper trail on issues he himself highlighted will get done during his tenure has been blurred and smudged, alongside blank pages and missing pages. Thus, a farm suspended between insufficiency and comedy.

The farm has capacity for waterways in which half of Guyana could swim. There’s admiration for a president who accumulates high-value trophies. Some bigshots in Medellin set the standard. The farm is potentially big trouble brewing. It got delayed. A boat got in the way. Now it’s double trouble. The ghosts of a hundred dead haunting his days, terrorizing his existence. Their blood cries from land and sea for justice, peace. A farm is physical. Can be papered over. Even toured as part of some well-constructed prop. Its jewels safely locked away, or culled.

In contrast, a hundred angry ghosts cannot be shooed away, or pushed around. No presidential white chalk mark, or broom across the doorway, will deny their restless roaming and reaching for relief.

For decades the PPP Govt deceived, dodged, deflected, denied. It damned exposers. A sunken boat and its cargo of dead expose the rot and stench that PPP leadership distanced from, disowned. Now the devil has come calling, will not walkaway emptyhanded. He must be paid. For conscientious Guyanese, the president’s Commission of Inquiry capsized before it left the docks. A ploy. A farce. A setup for a coverup. Rather than focus energies on bringing up the MV Barima’s overloaded mortuary, the priority was pulling down a website with linkages that speak volumes. The brush up and paint over sparkled in those early days. Nowadays, the same rush over and coverup feed the settled expectations of Guyanese. A year hence, the same Pres Ali would proudly say that ‘the PPP Govt promised a COI, and the families and nation got a COI.

A crisis contained? Or a conspiracy that’s more glaring by the day? There’s the conclusion. Guyanese have the role of sitting judges. They will rule. On the quality and credibility of what Pres Ali’s COI delivers. A clean job, or a snow job.

Last, Pres Ali doesn’t know to let sleeping dogs lie. Cost-of-living nagged at him, despite he being insulated from its sharp, piercing fingers. Lifestyle changes needed. Spendthrift ways must stop. Don’t try to be like the Joneses. A leader dealing in theory and his personal philosophy. Guyanese grappling with grim reality and their daily family tragedy. Not enough food in a country that energizes the world. The leader who makes future food security his personal calling is today criticizing citizens for sacrificing for a once-in-a-blue-moon treat for the kiddies. Callous, I think. Hypocrisy writ large when mine eat like kings, while Guyana’s impoverished hustle for crumbs and scraps.

It’s because a paralyzing, fear-inducing, cost-of-living crisis has never been honestly acknowledged by a depravedly indifferent PPP Govt. This is my updated sketch of Pres Ali. There is considerable room for improvements on his underachievement.