OPINION: President Ali gleamed of linkages and logistics, unmentioned were the little Guyanese people

Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 February 2024, 21:04 by Denis Chabrol

by GHK Lall

If I am an investor, the Guyana Energy Confab is the place to be.  If I am an investor with big visions and deep pockets and huge hunger, then the man of the moment is Guyana’s President, Excellency Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali.  At least, he was the one on Monday.  Excellency Ali hit some soaring crescendos.  In fact, in being persuaded by circumstances to give him a hearing, the president spoke at an uninterrupted high volume throughout his presentation.  It was all sales pitch, wooing and courting of his local and foreign audience.  Amid his enthusiastic pitch, there was hardly a patch of space, a minute or two only, for some passing mention about the chief shareholders in this nation’s wealth, the Guyanese people.  They have the biggest investment in this burgeoning oil and gas sector; they should be the ones reaping the largest rewards.  They are the ones also who are facing the highest risk of losing it all.  The hope.  The promise.  The aspiration.  The idea of being numbered among the people for whom this oil and gas must come to mean the most.  The actual reality would be sweet.  Of them, the great sweating multitudes of Guyana, there was merely the unstated, as if they are being taken for granted.  But of the president meaning to include them, that is understood.  I am charitable enough to extend that kindness to Excellency Ali.  It is the season of Lent.

But, if I were an investor, listening to Guyana’s head of state working himself into a full head of steam is a dream come true.  The American and European and Chinese and Indian and Arabian dream writ large.  Those that are of the day, others that are part of the soiled night.  In the neighborhood of Guyana’s presidential magnum opus, Trinidad’s Dr. Rowley made sure that he squeezed in his country’s capabilities sideways, the visions of sharing edgeways.  This is more than the stuff of ecstasy; it is the probability of fantasy.  Listening to President Ali, there was not a whiff of agony.  Like I said, Guyana’s headman has moved with energy and heft to perform well in the part of head salesman.  More road and bridge means money for builders.  There is gold in dem thar hills of Guyana, Lethem and elsewhere.  I heard this leader of dubious distinction speaking what sounds appealing: logistics and linkages.  And just to reassure (himself, perhaps?), he repeated that two-pronged tag team again and again.  Logistics and linkages rained down from the presidential podium and heaven to the assembled throng of drooling potential investors.  For those interested in the moolah (pisa, in creole), Demerara and Guyana are the places to be.  I owe President Ali a word of thanks for leaving out that favorite of Wall Street and investors in his logistics and linkages spiel.  It is the benefits and joys of leverage to round off the trio, some would say holy or unholy trinity.  I leave things right there.

Regrettably, it is my duty to insert the slenderest needle in the president’s verbal high notes.  They had all the elements of a fevered delivery.  Try some modulation some time, Mr. President; it helps with a smoother, more sophisticated enunciation, the timbre of what offers welcome reception.  Pitch and pause.  When to emphasize, when to speed up and when to slowdown.  The audience yesterday was captive, ready to cheer anything they heard, and a mouthful was heard.  But a whispered word to the man with mirages of greatness tumbling in his head: an oil and energy powwow is not a political campaign.  Guyana doesn’t have to sell anything.  Guyana’s goods and goodies sell themselves.  Let those who want to cast their eyes (and millions) elsewhere do so.  

My concern is that, though, President Ali said a choking mouthful, I scarcely heard anything about Guyanese citizens.  I will take the liberty of putting the words that should have been in his mouth, his mind, and his message.  As linkages and logistics are galvanized to higher and higher trajectories, the Guyanese people must come out ahead, be right on top.  Let nobody ever forget that priority of mine.’  Unfortunately, Excellency Ali forgot that part of his script and what should have been his driving passion.  Like the mighty VP waxing profusely about investors and return on investment, President Ali in his hurry with his flurries about logistics and linkages mirrored the big man, and missed the little people.  I read SN’s editorial of February 20 on Equatorial Guinea, and there were raw visions of Guyana.  The structure is there, and how about that lovely judicial ruling.  It certainly is inspiring, almost as much as it is mystifying.

I leave with this: investors must be welcomed, must make money.  It would be nice to hear President Ali and President Jagdeo insert a thought and speak a word about the Guyanese people.  If I am an investor, President Ali is my most loyal and glorious friend.  If I am a Guyanese, I’d be wondering what is in this oil for me.