OPINION: PPP addiction: control, more control, total control

Last Updated on Sunday, 29 March 2026, 19:03 by Writer

By GHK Lall

Guyanese should know something about addicts by now. Unfortunately, they number so many, it’s easy to notice a primary behavior. They seek to control, must get what they want, regardless of how they must be to achieve their endgame. If they must brush people aside, or knock them over, it’s done. Whoever stands in the way must be dealt with, so that an addiction can be satisfied. Shake hands with the PPP Government’s leadership. Do these guys and gals know how to scheme! Is there anyone in Guyana that can match these plotters for skills and efforts? It must be that Stalinist blood in their veins, what deforms their brains. Control, more control, total control is what the PPP leadership lives for, like addicts prowling and stalking for a fix, a shot, wherever it can be found, and by whatever means.

The Georgetown City Government (Municipality) just got runover, could soon be short of an arm, possibly a leg also. When 22 municipal streets are abruptly annexed by the PPP Government, that’s the result. Talk about smart men for leaders. From east to west and north to south, most of central GT is about to be under PPP control. The municipality can make do with the other sections and wards. From the perspectives of State House and Freedom House, the municipality is free to take the distressed areas, while they take control of lucrative ones. Wherever money and property (and levy) represent rich presences, then is when the addiction of the PPP flares uncontrollably. Seen before, with a market build here. When Pres Ali dons his gloves, gets a shovel, and arranges the cameras. It is garbage collection time. A good mix, I say. From those first steps, in conjunction with new revenue streams denied, monies withheld, the objectives were to strangle the patient first, then stick an injection into him to finish the job. Only the postmortem is left, and that, too, has been arranged with the right people in attendance and right mindsets guaranteed. Many will agree, the usual suspects will object. Guyana is now Josef Stalin country.

To emphasise, what he did so successfully, his PPP disciples are also practicing, getting perfect at it. Control the police. Control the public service. Control the media (rest well Stabroek News). Control the mind. Control the narratives. Control the regions. And now, control the biggest town of all, Georgetown, through cherry-picking its revenue generating gems. Yesterday, it was 22 streets; next time around, it will be all 22 (it isn’t so) kilometers of GT. Recall what I said earlier about addicts and their addictions. Why work at improving self and relationships, when whipping others into shape is better? Why participate in endless talking to arrive at some understanding, when walking over is more rewarding? Law? Who cares about that, other than paying lip service to it? When has the law meant something to the PPP, notwithstanding the bleating emerging out of Carmichael Street and the Arthur Chung Center? Ever seen an addict give a damn about jaywalking, littering, panhandling, public defecating, and getting violently into some innocent citizen’s face? Say hello to the PPP Govt in full cry. Driven bananas with its own addictions to take over everything, run over everybody, and take control of everything.

As a city resident, I should welcome the grabbing of 22 streets. When done the right way, with the municipality as an equal and respected partner, I’m the chief cheerleader. If I support this move, underlying potential benefits considered, then I would be endorsing calculated violations of the law by the government. Where does that stop? What other excesses in casual fashion and near total disregard for existing laws am I inciting? It is known that Guyana is polarized today as never before, that disharmony reigns. Yet this is the newest that is delivered by a PPP leadership bent on controlling every stream of local existence.

It astonishes that Pres. Ali still carries on with this drivel about One Guyana. His government carves up this society to fulfill its ambitions at control, to put Guyanese under the PPP’s boot, but he persists with his pretense about One Guyana. Can never be, when road control, local government control, and total control stand as pillars in the ominous visions of his government.