Walk with kings…never lose touch with the common people

Walk with kings…never lose touch with the common people

OPINION BY: GHK LALL

And, I promise one and all – those who supported me and those who didn’t – that I will be the President for all the people of Guyana, and I will serve each of you with affection, without discrimination and with every attention to fairness and equity—President Ali August 2020

As President, I will have to walk with kings, in our country’s interest, but I assure you that I will never lose the common touch. My first and last responsibility will be to the people of Guyana – all of them.— President Ali August 2020

As I first declared on the 2nd of August 2020: I am not the President of some Guyanese; I am the President of all Guyana. That principle has guided me these past five years, and it shall remain my compass in the years ahead.” —President Ali September 2025

No one could justifiably think that Pres Ali is struggling with myopia. I think, though, that he struggles with a touch of amnesia in August 2020; the last from 2025. The quotes are his words.

Now fast forward almost six years later, and there is the tragedy of the MV Barima. Pres Ali committed to the Guyanese people that he is going to be there for them. Every single one of them. How about that today, sir? Just a little. In a time of national tragedy is the best situation to make good on those words.

A Commission of Inquiry and no consultation with the leader of the opposition? Where is “of all Guyana” in this current national conversation?

In a time of national hurting, this is when national leaders rise to the moment and reach with arms outstretched for national healing. Not one person left behind. Not one boat allowed to stay at the bottom. Not one Guyanese left out, cast adrift. Not one media house left. Not when the national house is in distress.

Mr. President: this is not about who has got it right and who has got it wrong. This is about what is done well, there is confidence that all have done their best. To honor the dead. To regard the living. To keep the flames of hope shining brightly.

Mine is not the right to condemn, Pres Ali. History will commend or criticize him accordingly.

On reading his first inaugural address to the nation in August 2020, I stated publicly. Let’s try him. Let’s give him the space. I am sorry, Mr. President, but disappointment comes in waves that crest and will not let me rest. Nor the dead in the MV Barima who now lie in the uneasy embrace of death at the end of the sea. Their time was cut short. Abruptly. Frighteningly. Enduringly.

Mr. President, please let the work of the commission proceed publicly. Guyanese have had COI’s of extraordinary luminosity. They shed darkness, when light was all that would suffice. Why not cut Guyanese some slack? Why heap Guyanese on the rack? Why inspire me, Mr. President, to rise above all the noise that is vexatious to the spirit of the dead? Why add to the torments of the Guyanese people that are still waiting to make good on his words? So lusciously tendered. So grandly delivered.

“I will walk with kings” and “I will never lose the common touch.”

Mr. President, the indigenous of Guyana are waiting for their leader to not lose touch with them. They are pleading, but not begging. They are crying, but not cursing. If there ever was a time for Excellency Mohamed Irfaan Ali to “never lose the common touch” that time is now.

And, if ever there was a moment that called for Guyana’s national leader to stand up and say that I will be different (and truly mean what he says) that time is now.

When words are hollow, they have a habit of coming back to haunt. And, after that they hollow out even the best amongst us. Mr. President, I close with the words of that immortal Athenian tragedian:

“And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.”