OPINION: Mohamed should’ve seen this coming, few did

Last Updated on Sunday, 13 September 2026, 9:21 by Written By Denis Chabrol

by GHK Lall

Maritime Administration Guyana (MARAD) should be given credit for clearing the air early.  Goodbye to a boat captain’s license.  The reason tendered was that beast that refuses to be contained.  U.S. sanctions.  Fair enough.  But if that were to be applied across Guyana, some folks doing business here shouldn’t have been allowed to set foot in this country.  But MARAD has spoken, and in this instance, MARAD is god.

Frankly, I didn’t see this coming.  Don’t think that WIN Mohamed did, either.  Who could have?  For a boat captain license, for crying out loud!  It is difficult to foresee Mr. Mohamed interfering with the smooth operations of the Guyana Coast Guard.  Or of one of his crafts, definitely not bristling with naval warfare tools, representing any type of hostile presence.  What damage could he do to a wharf (if there is one, and it is operational)?  But, the PPP Govt, for whom MARAD is the public face in the Mohamed boat setup, didn’t get where it is by being Florence Nightingale.  Or stayed firmly cemented there, by playing at being Rodney King of Los Angeles Police brutality fame (‘can’t we all get along…’)?  Those are, for sure, not the PPP Govt’s way.

Taking away Mr. Mohamed’s boat captain license, with the likelihood of no change of heart, is a way to bring to a dead stop all of his aquatic adventures.  He would be handicapped from turning up at inconvenient times in depressed communities and leaving a trail of agitation in his wake.  The Guyana subtitles for that: less voter interaction and pressing of the flesh in indigenous communities could mean less voter interest in the Mohamed phenomenon.  A further advantage for the PPP Govt is that all the bad news in those communities, and its human toll, that it is suppressing from getting out, are blanked out.  All’s well in the hinterland, all the tribes are happy as if they’re special guests at Office of the President.  It’s a calculation that is now inseparable from the PPP.

For their part, Mr. Mohamed and his WIN group are going to have to live that old maxim: the stricter the government, the more resourceful the population.  Or, in more down to earth terms, the ruffer the political adversary, the cleverer the one feeling the squeeze.  The WIN man didn’t become a lightning rod on Guyana’s electoral map by being angelic or a monastic.  He knows the lay of the terrain in the interior, should know to carveout a land passage.  I wouldn’t recommend that he ventures visiting his constituents by air.  That is, unless he has his own well-guarded parachute and GPS.  Further, after the inroads he made into both the PPP and PNC indigenous voting bases, he has to have some assets on the ground available to be cultivated.  Recall that recently I introduced certain types of language into the conversation, and how those must feature in his considerations.  MARAD and the PPP Govt just cleared his calendar.  Said differently, the PPP Govt can throw everything at him: stop him at the banks.  Stop his businesses (such as they were).  Stop his river movements.  But the government is going to have to come up with the creative and aggressive to stop him from reaching the Guyanese people and exchanging messages.

Last, if sanctions contributed to the yanking or nonrenewal of Mr. Mohamed’s boat captain license, then somebody in the PPP Govt (not MARAD) should explain to Guyanese why he still has a driver’s license?  Why he is allowed to eat in restaurants (the question of his money and its possible taint, or going against Uncle Sam’s sanctions)?  Frankly, using MARAD’s pitch, he shouldn’t have internet access.   Or have a social media account.  Or be permitted to buy dog chow.  Developments like those could be frowned upon the U.S. Justice Dept and Duke Street as sanctions busting.  Somebody in the PPP Govt is not doing their job.  Sorry, just trying to help both sides.