Last Updated on Saturday, 12 September 2026, 8:41 by Writer
by GHK Lall
Mr. Azruddin Mohamed must copy the PPP playbook, convert himself to persecuted victim. He is. By all accounts. By any standard.
A two-week boat license delay is child’s play; part of the PPP’s toy store of tricks. Phone seized. Reveals deep-seated PPP anxieties. Boat license held-up — bad business. The PPP leadership is interested in his ammunition, and what he did wrong (phone). Mr. Mohamed lost interest in doing what was right — putting his boat papers in order. Unfortunately, he has a problem: he is dealing in politics and not mathematics. The government’s sinister intents and his own sluggishness do not cancel out each other.
Now he stares uphill. Phone seized and held. U.S. marshals must be here, or on the way. Mohamed waits. I wouldn’t take back that phone. It could have a b… Or a listening device. Regarding his boat captain license renewal, the name of the game is the same. He has to wait. Not a political favor, as the people said. Fancy that one, as he cools his heels. Keep his feet on dry land. As is my norm, free advice offered from president to prime minister to vice president to opposition leader. Am an equal opportunity helper. And a good neighbor (like State Farm). He has the means to travel in a fishing boat, meet his people, well-wishers. Why does he have to have a yacht? He is not competing in the America Cup. He is battling against the PPP cup and for a place in the cup of Guyanese consideration.
An opposition leader has to be resourceful. He could learn from Cheddi Jagan. Americans used Burnham to mess with Jagan. In time, Dr. Jagan messed right back at them. He who was banned from the American Embassy, had to travel a rocky road before he became their next general. From General Burnham to General Jagan to General Mohamed is a possibility. WIN Mohamed has to be a better card player. He has some strong cards. A man to watch, fear. Hence, that phone seized, boat license subjected to the ordeal of 40 days and nights in bureaucratic wilderness. I thought that the public service had some strains of independence. My bad; the PPP leaves nothing to chance, considers every contingency. It is what was taught in Moscow, Warsaw, and Havana. Yes, the same one in Cuba, and not Florida.
Mr. Mohamed has a long wait. Phone is now useless, what the Yanks call hazmat. Boat license is another vessel of fish. Slow down, trip up. Which government would be so slack as to contribute to its own disappearance? Maybe one in Singapore or Norway, but not here. He must be ready for more trials. More State agents hot on his trail. Today the PPP is smarter, slicker, and slipperier; shelter behind the Yanks, do their dirty work, and then run into a house of worship and claim democracy, integrity, sovereignty, and duty to country. My apologies. I forget piety. See why I like this country (and America)? When all those areas—integrity, duty, and so on—are monopolized by Guyana’s colored people and America’s white people, what is left for a nonentity like me?
I get to ring a bell every now and then for an underdog who allegedly was a real bad PPP dog. I deal in hard reality, not ancient history. If I were the PPP Govt, I would let him have the boat license pronto. When he is off patrolling the high seas, what time can he have for manicured farmlands, rolling hills, and mooing bulls? It’s how my mind works. Like Marlon Brando in On the Waterfront, I shouldda been a politician, not a Christian who has some pagan in him. The maritime chiefs should give him the license and get him out of the way. Figuratively, of course. Then, Mohamed can go from farmland to hinterland. Delay exposing who’s behind those giving away Guyana’s prime lands to Canadians and Australians. Enough for today. Goodbye.
