OPINION: Cash grant: form, substance, timing (more)

Last Updated on Friday, 28 November 2025, 10:50 by Writer

By GHK Lall

Hold horses, fellow expectant Guyanese! Hold off on the early spending. Hold still with the holiday planning and preparation. Pres. Ali said that there was going to be a cash grant, more cash grants, as early as in his 2025 New Year’s Day address. He never said that it was going to be an Xmas cash grant, or a holiday cash grant. A cash grant in 2025, yes, but not one that had the word Xmas or holiday in it. The disappointed may grouse that that is splitting hairs. I have a grant of my own to extend: split the difference. After all, and in fairness, truth is truth, and that’s where the president is presently nestled, following a long journey of discovery.

Enter the Hon. Bharrat Jagdeo, another seeker of truth and, better yet, a teller of truth’s nuggets. ‘If the president said that he is going to do something, it is as good as done. Guaranteed. He is a man of his word. How I love this side of Guyana! Its politics and those who call themselves practitioners of that noble art. If the president keeps his word, there will be none left for campesinos like me, since he would have commandeered all of them. And delivered on them. Like the eagerly anticipated cash grant. Take a close look at Excellency Mohamed Irfaan Ali. Does he bear any resemblance to Scrooge? He appears to me to look more like Midas. The man with all the gold in his hands, who has his scales out weighing this gem and that one, and all the while thinking what to do with them. Leadership is a demanding undertaking, a heavy piece of business.

Forget about Bharrat Jagdeo and his hit parade. Listen to me. Since Pres. Ali said that there will be a cash grant, there will be one. It doesn’t have to be tailored to Xmas. There is Kwanzaa afterwards, and don’t forget the Old Year’s/New Year’s thrill and demands on cash outlays. See, the president is a thinking leader. Why package the cash grant as an Xmas cash grant, drive Guyanese to run out and incur debts, and then be left empty-handed when the New Year breaks? Wisdom is at large, stalks this land, and Irfaan Ali is in the forefront. A host of helpful programs is being contemplated. Lovely, sir, just what Guyanese want to hear. A cash grant is just a small cog in those visions. Not so lovely, Dr. Excellency, for Guyanese don’t have too much patience with that, or take comfort from that revelation. Cash is cash, and a bird close at hand is a better than a bird still being sketched on the government’s drawing board.

I have always said that Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali is one of the silkiest leaders in Guyana, with or without a sweet script in his hand. The same Guyanese who are hollering and beating on his door for a cash grant in time for Xmas, will be the same citizens who will kneel before his throne and thank him in January when they greet the New Year with a surplus in their pockets and not a deficit. An unspent cash grant is money in the bank. Those who helped themselves to zero percent financing, and that alluring and lengthy grace period before the first repayment, will be lucky if they break even. The cash grant should be a hundred, at least, by my accounting. But what if it isn’t? Recall that the environment now demands sensibility and austerity: feared oil supply glut, and falling oil prices. It may not qualify as bellyaching, but definitely calls for some belt-tightening.

It is why the president must be seen as smart. See how he stretches out the cash grant clock. Buries it in “the government has a very elaborate agenda for the upliftment of your life…” Get ready, Guyanese! Whoever wanted a cash grant clue, just got one. Not of timing, but of quantity. Those who were counting on a hundred large, will have to be contented with a dozen or two small ones. The man said so himself: “a very elaborate agenda…” The joys they come up with at OP. Here’s the Ali Formula (very elaborate agenda): 50k in money; 25k for kiddies; 25k for elderly; 5k for electricity; 5k for taxi; and so on. By my math that is more than a hundred thousand. Are there still anticipators, complainers, naysayers?

Bharrat Jagdeo was right this once. The president gave his word. He just did again, with many more words, more than any Guyanese expected. Ah, “a very elaborate agenda” he was careful to state. Not to be mistaken for an ulterior one. Merry Xmas to all. And a happy, money-filled New Year.