OPINION: Biden out, Trump in, Jagdeo lingering

Last Updated on Sunday, 21 July 2024, 19:44 by Writer

by GHK Lall

President Joe Biden should go gracefully to pasture. If he is as is today, there is no telling how he will be a year from now. The odds of better are remote to nonexistent, even staying the same are uphill. Former president Donald Trump was hanging by a thread, but the attempt on his life has made him unbeatable. If ever there was a rallying point and cry, it came from that shooting. My thinking is that even with a Joe Biden at 100%, it would have been a cliffhanger, and a possibly worse repetition of the January 6 uprising/insurrection/coup attempt, starting election day in November.

As bad as his condition is currently, Biden being out is bad for America. It is also bad news for Guyana. Well, PNC, AFC, and the non-Jagdeo Guyana. The pattern of recent developments indicate that Washington is sick of him, have had enough of he and his cabals of a certain kind of people. Those waylaid in their journeys. Taking stock of where Washington is, it does not leave much to either the intellect or imagination, regarding how many Guyanese have had their fill of El Supremo Jagdeo. It is not only how many Guyanese recoil at the mere mention of the name Jagdeo, but the cross section of them, and the extent of their distaste for his handiworks.

With a halfway decent (and that is what it has been) Biden White House, there have still been strong signals from the Treasury Department and a series of interactions at JFK International involving Guyanese nationals. Instead of asking what’s up, the interpretation here is that the game is up. I take that thickening, strengthening thread and point to that peculiar position of Exxon, one that was deliberately delivered publicly for maximum impact. It rang the ears of PPP strongman Jagdeo. To his credit, he immediately recognized that ‘no conflict of interest’ posture for what it is: a threat, nothing but a political threat of unsettling proportions. It was why he came out primed for a fight (to say war would not be farfetched), and then doubled down by sending out his attack squad. To tighten all this into a sentence, the Americans have had it to up there with an ethics busting, human rights busting, media busting, standards busting, law busting PPP and its gang of revilers, swindlers, and destabilizers. Yes, I said destabilizers, and for solid reasons.

Indeed, the oil is 160 kilometers from the shoreline. But its entire supporting downstream infrastructure is land based. Unhappy people are resentful people, and resentful people are unpredictable people. And when there are unpredictable people around, that is not a welcome undercurrent for investor confidence. Investor confidence is not limited to the financing package. When the full package on the ground upsets investor confidence that is bad governance, and bad for business. More expansively and pointedly, it is bad for American interests.

Now, as befuddled and disjointed, even discombobulated, as Joe Biden and his people have been, there is still the whole machinery of the US Government that has its eyes and ears finely tuned, its mind sharply focused. OFAC is one example; federal authorities in various agencies having some relationship to domestic and global policing are others. The squeeze is being applied on Guyana, specifically on the PPP Government. A chill, it is called in diplomatic parlance. When Jagdeo rushed out to ring Alistair Routledge’s bell, he didn’t help either his standing or that of the PPP. I think that the US Government is on the move, and Jagdeo recognized that the PPP is being moved around on the American chessboard of assets. Now I am going to give the steering wheel a hard turn, and I encourage my fellow Guyanese to think.

Surging AFC Field Marshal Nigel Hughes headed into Leonora, of all places, for his grounding and greeting road show. The man is so confident that he took the team that he did, and I don’t mean the color of the uniform only. I am impressed by that example of standing on strong ground. Earlier in the day, the media unveiled PNC boss Aubrey Norton speaking a different language: open to the coalition idea. Say that again! From not considering at one time to open to considering… What’s behind this? I sense some powerful force working behind the curtain. Now this is going to set Jagdeo’s teeth on edge, for I am sure that, though it is only late July, he sees what I see and hear what I hear. The only saving grace now is the all-but-guaranteed Trump coronation come November. To put a ribbon on it, he is both the irresistible force and immovable object in one. I think that is why Big Politico honcho Jagdeo has not overpowered his opponents by calling an early election. He has the machinery in place. The combined opposition, especially Mr. Hughes, is still developing momentum on the ground, building its organization. Short and sweet: Jagdeo is betting on Trump and hoping for the best, which is why all that Guyanese hear is 2025. I wouldn’t get carried away by late 2025. Last, I wouldn’t give the opposition calendar or road mileage. That is, unless there are so many dirty tracks to cover.