OPINION: Charge the Mohameds, or free them to operate

Last Updated on Wednesday, 5 March 2025, 22:38 by Writer

By GHK Lall

“Unfairly treated” and “blocked from doing business” and “not ruling out assassination attempt on son”. Those were part of the captions from SN and KN on March 5, 2024, and Demerara Waves (March 4), respectively. Mr. Nazar “Shell” Mohamed broke his peace during the holy month of Ramadan. I must do the same in this season of Lent. My thoughts and positions follow. I speak as a concerned citizen, and not as an advocate for Mr. Mohamed et al. He is far better equipped to do so.

The PPP Government is in a bind. US sanctions are in effect against Mr. Mohamed and his son, and their holdings. The government dare not go against those crippling strictures. Then, there is the Guyana Constitution, and the right of citizens to work. The government dare not go against that sacred provision. Or, so I believe. The government seemingly has. There is the recent matter of renewal or extension of operating license(s) for maritime vessels owned by the Mohameds. A legal challenge would be in order, now appears to be in the making. If in the same boat, I would take that kind of action. The US sanctions were first announced approx. nine months ago. From all indications, US laws now supersede Guyana laws. One of the questions that has raged locally take this form: why hasn’t the PPP Government charged the Mohameds for something, anything? It would help if the Hon. Attorney General, Mr. Anil Nandlall, SC would break his silence and do the honors with a straightforward response. Due to not being on Facebook, excerpts from the independent media form the basis of this writing. Clearly, “unfairly treated” and “blocked from doing business” have some substance in them, and merits a statement from the government. Especially when claims of government’s violating of the Guyana Constitution are made. Something is going to have to yield in this situation: the Mohameds (one or the other or both) have to be charged. If not, Mr. Mohamed’s charge of being unconstitutionally targeted and victimized takes on considerable weight. The PPP Government must have the decency and integrity to charge the people or free them to do business here. Though both decency and integrity are unknown inside the PPP (as group or government), this is where I stand.

Unsurprisingly and not unrelated to the troubles of his family, Mr. Mohamed, Snr., took matters into an altogether direction. It is a sinister one, one with formidable and fearsome meanings. As captioned in KN, Mr. Mohamed is “not ruling assassination attempt on his son.” I believe that Mr. Mohamed is on the firmest grounds with that assertion. Though President Ali may not like it, and Attorney General Nandlall may not find that comforting, it is where the PPP is, the lengths to which it would possibly go. To purge itself of an unwanted presence (one that is agitating). Even venture into the unthinkable: eliminate a potential electoral competitor. Has been done before here. Again, I assert that Mr. Mohamed is not given to flights of fancy, but has his feet very much on the ground. He points to the grimness of local reality under the PPP Government. Right in these very pages, I have said it once, I have written it twice, and I have laid it out before the Guyanese people more than both of those numbers combined. The PPP Government has manifested in the clearest, sharpest terms, that it will stoop to the lowest to try its hand at character assassination of those it holds as ‘undesirables’ or ‘parasites’ or that telling euphemism “naysayers”. It is but a short step to actual assassination of those standing in its way. Why not? Why not, I had insisted and insist again today, when it is more than a point being made, or an exposure of leadership failures and more, is laid naked before the world? When character assassination comes so easily, is second nature to the PPP, then why not the real thing? Why not more than a reputation: Why not the removal of an obstacle, once and for all? After all, there is a whole state apparatus to exonerate it.

Unfortunately, it is how far the business of politics and winning has deteriorated in Guyana. To dare to deal in democracy’s ideals in Guyana is to deal with a deathlike state. To dip toe into sacred Constitutional waters, in the belief of its hallowed protections, is tantamount to taking one’s life with one’s own hand in this country. Or, more chillingly and accurately, put in the hands of the PPP. It has shown that it has the capabilities and willingness to engage in character assassination via hidden daggers out of its Congress and Cabinet. It is but a short footstep from there to other weapons. Though he may not have fully fathomed it, Mr. Nazar Mohamed may be too close for comfort with his sense of probable assassination attempt on the life of his son. It must be the ugliest development for a man who has given so much to the PPP and its leadership.