By GHK Lall- I give President Ali credit. He is doing his best to impress the invading army of white people. For there he was on social media creating a storm as he hurled one stink bomb after the other at Guyanese who incurred his regal wrath. Are there Guyanese in this hood who can bring themselves to see the same President Ali taking the liberty of getting angry at the hordes of panting foreign investors who are ripping this country apart and kicking colored people’s hopes to pieces? Or enraged at those paying a pittance for the privilege of plundering the wealth of this country?
To cut a fine point on this, would this same script reading, highfalutin talking, sand truck barreling ahead head of state let loose with a volley at Exxon’s Alistair Routledge? Guyanese do well to remember that one about primates and their wisdom with the branches that can bear their weight.
Different folks, different strokes aka different words and different body language, i.e., the right amount of deference. As someone who bends the English Language to suit the will, there’s no issue with anyone employing highfalutin words to address a situation. My only condition is that he or she knows their significance, be familiar with where they are most suited, when they are best applied.
Guyanese are living with some strange phenomena in this their golden age of oil. The slave masters are worshipped, while the slaves and serfs are whipped into line and made to know their place. Critics are a vital life force in any democracy. In this pseudo democracy, Guyanese that remotely qualify for the cherished distinction of critic or conscientious objector are the first ones to become the object of President Ali’s pent-up fury. Is this Excellency Ali at the helm of the national government? Or Excellency Hillbilly leading the local charge of the light brigade?
The latter was a fatal expedition from the start, and so it is that the president’s vociferous and thrusting efforts at suppression of freedom of expression (don’t forget that one) are also doomed to tumble into a black hole. I worry for the reputation of this country as he seemingly dives headlong into that same opening. A real warrior is Commander Ali: the more highfalutin his words are, the more he made a mockery of the highest office in this country.
Somebody please do me a favour and pass that simple message on to His Excellency. I wonder what all these white people think when they absorb the native war chief delivery of a salvo of verbal tomahawks at those earmarked as local renegades. It must bring back images of scalping and other gory tribal customs, so alien to the white man.
All of this confirms something that I have always insisted is present in spades: President Ali is a man given to grand theatrical flourish. First, it was a fore day morning presidential blast. Now there is this foray into social media to remind everyone who is in charge, and who has the thinnest of thin skins where criticisms are concerned. From a presidential point of view, constructive ones are the most enraging and for a simple reason. They are unchallengeable. As bam-bi for Dr. Ali, constructive criticisms are the most unbearable, because they nail the nuts on the public noticeboard.
Don’t parse the dictionary for impressive sounding words that make Guyanese double over in convulsions of laughter. Instead, I respectfully urge (don’t ask how I manage) the president to go to the heart of the sorun with oil money transparency. Fix the system. Fire some people. Let there be no doubt about who is the real president, Dr, Ali, fire the one usurping the role of president. Show the Guyanese people who is the bigger boss.
As an aside, Guyanese may justifiably complain about political leadership deterioration; but they are never lacking in entertainment. It has been from a feral blast under a foreign plenipotentiary’s roof a while back to a cyber explosion in the Christmas Season of all times. History does repeat itself; the sorun is that history often mutates into putridity, just shy of leadership obscenity.
Fresh from his adventure into the world of highfalutin words, President Ali retreated to more familiar territory: the low ground, that navigated by turtles and assorted stealth creatures. The Guyana media was lowballed again on the occasion of the formalities involving the Commissioner of Police and his cast of seniors. Though it is a struggle, I don’t think that Mr. Clifton is the Commissioner of Guyana’s secret police. So, what’s up with the media ban, and still claiming democracy’s openness, and transparency at its most revealing. How low can the president go, that is the gist of my question. Perhaps, Attorney General Anil Nandlall may have a word of wisdom for the unlettered in this country.
On each occasion that I treat myself to the luxury that President Ali cannot go lower, some uncontrollable compulsion drives him to go out and prove me wrong. The Guyana Police Force, and the appointment of its commissioner should not be transformed into a masonic rite. What is next, passwords and secret signs for the media to access such presidential moments of high drama delivered in low taste? Perhaps, John Cleese’s Monty Python question sums all of this up best. Was that really necessary? What’s proven? Only one person, one office, is tarnished.