OPINION: President Ali took the high ground, now he must take back this country, lead it

Last Updated on Friday, 22 September 2023, 15:17 by Denis Chabrol

by GHK Lall

Someone was kind enough to share the tape of Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali, on British TV.  The counsel was to focus on the latter end of the recording, which I followed.  It was a rare treat, what I would call Excellency Ali’s shining hour.  He glowed with maturity, great self-control under provocative circumstances, and manifested what he is capable of, as he comes into his own.  I salute the President, and this is even more freely given, considering the subject that was being discussed.

Guyana’s President Ali spoke calmly and resolutely about the burning issues that must be fleshed out relative to the call for reparations over the odious institution of slavery.  He did magnificently, and the President is given all the commendations that can be mustered.  It is deserving.  A young leader in full command of himself, a younger man showing that he could make the grade.  I shall return to that in a moment, but first some more pressing business embedded in this so-called interview, which turned out to be a racist hatchet effort cum revealing diatribe.

A head of state is due a certain special space, dignity. This is even when he or she comports self in a less than stellar fashion.  I say this unequivocally: President Irfaan Ali was impeccable on that TV program, an oasis of serenity during what turned out to be a bombardment from one lying in ambush, and who did pounce and made a total spectacle of himself.  Now, considering what a President or Prime Minister is due, our own President should not, should never, have been subject to the insulting ordeal that he was forced to weather.  I have never seen, read, or heard the kind of sharp and condescending approach, complete with disdainful attitude and related verbal actions, directed to any white leader of any State.  Not John F. Kennedy, despite his known proclivities that demeaned his family and more.  Not Boris Yeltsin, despite his human weaknesses for certain liquids that disgraced his country.  Not even Richard Nixon (or Donald Trump), in spite of their extraordinary forays into alleged criminal territory.  But President Irfaan Ali of Guyana had to endure his trial by what I interpret to be ill-concealed racist fire.

President Ali is a colored (nonwhite) leader of a near totally nonwhite country.  This is the respect he gets, the disrespect that is heaped upon him before a watching nation, a watching continent, now a watching and recoiling world.  I recoil in horror and anger.  President Ali did not insult or assault anyone, not even their sensitivities.  What he did was make clear where he stood for reparations that have to be for one of the greatest evils, hands down the greatest crime, committed by man against man; the white man against the Black man; and then refined and perpetrated in other lesser forms against other kinds of nonwhite men and women.  For standing tall for reparations, a white man tried to bring Guyana’s President down low.  He failed.  Now his folly, this media felony, by his own hand smears his professionalism, makes a mockery of his standing, and reveals to the world what lies beneath the smooth smiles and creamy words.  It was not a strawberry and scones moment.

Without painting a whole race with one broad brush, I alert all of my fellow Guyanese-PPP fundamentalists, PNC diehards, middle-of-the road citizens, radical thinkers, and others-please understand that all who may claim to be genuine partners are not really true friends.  Or brothers personifying equitableness behind the polite veils, be they individual or corporate.  I point to present day exploiters in this country, and lay this on the table before all: what is being done here would not be done in a white ruled country.  In the clearest terms: the oil contract may be perceived as racist deed; corporate oil practices may be considered the epitome of racist impulses and racist objectives, with money and profits the official cover story and balms.  Thus I stand immovably and unflinchingly.

In refocusing on President Ali’s managing of himself, and handling of a troubling situation, I ask myself how much more this young leader could achieve, if he is allowed the freest expansion of his wings.  My position has this sparkle: when President Ali can take the higher ground against his white inquisitor, and hold that ground, then he can do the exact same at home in Guyana.  I assert this, notwithstanding the intrigues and intricacies of internal party politics, and the manipulations and machinations of others high in his circle.

I now take the liberty of speaking directly to President Ali, Guyana’s President, my President: take control, make tough decisions, lead this society out of the dark and deadly swamp into which it has tumbled headlong because of the actions that emanate from another head.  Guyana should be rising morally and ethically (like you did in Great Britain), in this time of statistical plenty.  It is decaying spiritually.  It rots from the head, and though it is not the official head of state, the stain spreads and touches the Office of the President, and the person sitting at the helm there.  Excellency Ali: take this country in hand.  Take it out of the hands of others.