OPINION: September 1st, Guyana’s day in history coming

Last Updated on Monday, 26 May 2025, 21:13 by Writer

by GHK Lall

I think that the PPP brain trust consulted with Nostradamus on that September 1^st date, as the day of competition for a winner to take the reins of national power. In terms of a strategic move, there is something that could be said for it. But I believe that regardless of whether the date was December 31^st (this year) or later, the PNC and AFC would be in the exact same place. Like England’s King Aethelred the Unready. My hang-up is that having gone through 9/11 in the USA, compliments of the al-Qaeda brigade, I labor with a repeat via 9/1 in Guyana, from the hands of the PPP.

When I consider the listless state of the Opposition, the PPP could have called the contest tomorrow or whenever, and its political adversaries would not have made much of a difference. What Ali and Jagdeo did was show that they are no slouches in the copycat game. If Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro could call what he did in Essequibo, then the same could apply here, with the outcome here similarly suspended somewhere between time, space, and disbelief. Like Essequibo, what is the story on the ground in Demerara and Berbice? It is pretty and it’s ugly in the same screenshot. A big battalion of undecided Guyanese hanging around on the fence, which is news now well-known by all the political parties. The bad news is that there’s nobody who is doing much of anything to give them a nudge to get some of them to make up their minds. This is how disgusted tens of thousands of Guyanese are. It is how disillusioned they are. For, after all, the story of this great oil patrimony and moving and shaking oil money is not of some distant country with lucky people. The story is right here, and the Guyanese people are asking themselves, to where have their money disappeared. Specifically, whose pockets and bank accounts are so overloaded as to be overflowing.

The political territory is that ripe for cultivation. The trouble is that there are no workers of merit to speak of: part-time, if they are seen at all. Remote operators fascinated by the magic of Facebook, which lets them off the hook, which is facing the people and saying how honest they are, and how much they would do, if given another chance. The PPP has the inside track. Though among the most unwanted and distrusted of visitors, the PPP has the money. It is an old maxim that he who has the money also has the honey. Want a bridge? Freedom House will deliver. Short of a water tank? The PPP is on the way to rescue. Count on it and get ready to count some much-needed cash. Unfortunately, the PNC and AFC are in no position to compete with that bank. But, by God! A little more energy, a little fighting spirit, a little handshake and a face-to-face do go a long way. Guyanese see a man in a suit, and they swear that they see God. Imagine the commotion when they see a citizen of the soil coming to their humble villages, and saying ‘I come as a brother, a sister, a helper.’ The young fella has made waves doing just that, and check how much unnerving that has generated in the PPP camp.

After all the analyses are said and done, here is my analysis (and prognosis). Believe it or not, when Guyanese needed to get a glimpse, a feel, for the PNC and AFC, they waited in the sun and thundershowers, while the two parties sought shelter in the sanctuary of social media, and a steady stream of press releases. I can take these positions because I am  fence sitter also. Except that I am one with a difference. I walk with my own fence, squat in my own space, and speak to what the times demand, the people expect and need. Very few are the Guyanese that believe in, still trust in the good doctors Ali and Jagdeo. All that the people have got from them is bad diagnosis, bad prescriptions, and bad reactions. I term them hangovers, since that soothing culture is all that Guyanese now have.

Two out of five Guyanese have little to no money, but now the latest sly development is that mantra coming out of PPP quarters: in the new term, in the new term. Vote fuh wee, and wee gun look aftah thee. By way of a reminder, it was the Mighty Ali who had promised in his New Year’s Day message that there will be more cash grants this year. Oh well, chalk that up to one more broken promise. The PPP is smarter than a snake: make September 1^st the date of decision, and there’s no time for another cash grant rollout. Nice one, fellas; I have to applaud it.

Look where Guyana is; even Venezuelans have been engaged to be part of the promised action. Maduro doesn’t have to conduct his phony war by proxy: flood Guyana with his people. The PPP was one step ahead of him: V4V. It will be cheap, since aliens can’t complain about being cheated. That’s for the PNC and AFC, and I don’t see how they cannot or will not, since whatever they pushed for got shot down by the chair or the arithmetic of GECOM. I think Guyanese are in for some interesting times. The aftermath of September 1 will tell just how interesting such will be. Me, I am learning from the Chinese.