OPINION: January, August, December – same ole Pres. Ali

Last Updated on Thursday, 18 December 2025, 23:11 by Writer

By GHK Lall

Pres. Irfaan Ali promised in January 2025. He promised again in August (if you behave…). He fell apart at the seams in December, and along with that shattered the dreams of many Guyanese hopefuls. Hope springs eternal. Dr. Ali just reduced that to the infernal. Guyanese who were clamoring for an Xmas cash grant just got one. It’s not in the way they expected. The same people who were watching, waiting, calling for a cash grant are appealed to: please don’t condemn the president, don’t curse him. He’s young, he will learn, he will grow into the big job that he has been handed on a platter. He will make a lesser mess.

Frankly speaking, I see no reason for poor, desperate Guyanese to be angry with the president or the PPP Govt. A cash grant is a cash grant, whether in December or in January. Cash grant was promised this year, not Xmas cash grant. Let’s hope it sticks. In the budget, in parliament, in estimates, in debates, in the news. Time to collect in time for Phagwah or Easter. Good for some abeer and powder, or a kite and some twine, for the little ones. The good news is that the previous two-step process is now one. No lining up for registration, only hanging out for collection. Time is money and Pres. Ali just reduced the processing time by 80%. The president is a thinking man (a peculiar kind), but a thinking man still. Imagine if he had announced the cash grant in the dying days of November, the chaos and confusion on the streets of Georgetown.

Give the leader his due: he thought of all those vehicles on the road leading up to GT, in GT, and heading out of GT. Now, add to those scenarios hundreds of thousands of cash grant-crazed citizens coming out of their homes in droves, rushing to get to a payment site, and further constricting the already snarled traffic. Whatever little leeway drivers had to navigate the clustered roads would be gone with angry and hungry, impatient and rowdy Guyanese hustling to a money site. Pedestrians swamping streets and crossings in their hurry to be first. No room to move, no space for a little vehicle groove. Tek dah fuh a Chrissmus carol. Lyrics by Irfaan Ali, arrangement compliments of Excellency Mohamed “Dr. Money” Ali. A real sweetheart of a national leader he is.

The other side of that coin is what will Guyanese do for Xmas? How will many of them manage, those who had their hearts (and calculations) set on a presidential cash grant in time for Christmas? I have heard about presidential pardon, but this presidential cash grant is a new one to me. I wonder if Mr. Ali has this fancy idea that because he has been given trusteeship of the national treasury that it is his money. I must remember to ask Dr. Ashni who must be drooling to get going with his 72-hour budget marathon all lined up and rearing for action. Dr. Ashni is the opposite of Dr. Ali. He let the numbers do his talking, while Dr. Ali is all about, well, talking and talking and talking, and little doing. The president started talking about a cash grant, cash grants, as early as January 1, 2025, and waited until December, one week from Christmas to drop his bomb in the lap of Guyanese. And Guyanese have their eyes fixed on Nicholas Maduro. Maduro has been warning Guyanese: deal with me, or else. Ali built up locals and then dropped them down a shaft: deal with that, and like it. Otherwise, there could be a change of mind, and the cash grant announcement recalled. Oh, what a country! Ah, what a grand figure for a leader! See, why I love these guys? See, why they can never stop criminalizing me, manufacturing their own farces about me, starting in the Office of the President, and then the Vice President’s? It’s Christmas, so I give Prime Minster Phillips a freebie, though there is some roughage in his space.

Tens of thousands of words written and spoken and Guyanese can’t even get ten cents from their loaded government for the holidays. It is a fact that prices climb sharply in December. This means that hard-up Guyanese just got further softened up, with their president in the lead, and the vendors waiting their turn. From the most wonderful time in the world to the most fearful of all time. Thanks for nothing, Dr. Ali. And to show that I can rise above all these political obscenities, do have a Merry Christmas. An interesting one, also.