OPINION: Since no one else would, I help Pres Ali

Last Updated on Monday, 24 August 2026, 15:34 by Denis Chabrol

By GHK Lall

Though it’s a lost cause, I persevere.  To Pres Ali, I say: sir, don’t do this to thy self.  Better to hold thy peace, sometimes.  Let others think what they wish.  Don’t give them ammunition, my liege, to think the worst.  I have my own wish.  It’s that someone in the Office of the President finds the courage, finds honesty, and whisper to the president: don’t go there, sir.  Leave that alone.  It’s another lost cause.  To ask OP personnel to cease telling Pres Ali whatever he wants to hear.  There are people at the Central Bank, Bureau of Stats, and Finance, who are capable of enlightening Guyana’s president on the weakness of his ways.  Poor people and their contributions to inflation represent one such lapse.  Simple elaboration follows.

If 300,000 cash-famished, starvation-threatened citizens of this Oil Republic were to ‘eat out’ all at once, how much money can they spend?  In aggregate.  How much do they have in hand?  Disposable income.  Discretionary spending.  So, each spend $3,000 monthly, likely once quarterly.  It’s all they can afford.  What does that do, can that do, to push inflation upwards?  In a trillion-dollar economy, how does a billion spent by 300,000 hungry once monthly, or quarterly, on food contribute to soaring prices?  What’s out of reach of the working man, and the worried mother.

Among the biggest buyers in Guyana’s economy must be the Guyana Government.  When a government minister, or a government close family member, hosts a ball, a banquet, a fete, a sport, an extravaganza, they are buying and spending, and splurging like the proverbial loaded pork-knocker or out-of-control sailor.  Money is no object.  Money has no limit.  Bear in mind that these are private gatherings, these sporting occasions, which could hold anywhere from several dozen intimates to several hundred hangers-on. Pres Ali was too clever by far, when he bypassed those insider PPP groups, those costly inflationary realities, and took aim at working class Guyanese seeking to soothe their souls (and their children’s pangs of hunger) with some fries and a piece of chicken.  Fried chicken not cordon bleu, or pate de foie gras.  Nobody will ever be able to convince me that Excellency Ali is so low, so stingy, that he would deny poor Guyanese a rare moment of gastronomic delectable, some inexpensive culinary delight.

When tens of millions, hundreds of millions, are splashed like water continuously, there’s one of those behind inflationary spirals.  When the same amounts, or more, are binged week after week, by PPP Govt top dogs (and cats), on entertainment and dining out, there’s one of the trusted sources of booming inflation.  Food inflation.  Not construction inflation.  In prior writings, I refrained from naming places.  But who among Guyana’s poor masses can shop at the supermarket that is a foreign conglomerate?  The one situated on the East Coast.  I hear Guyanese who can manage complaining.  So, how could the impoverished in this oil rich state even think of venturing there?  Maybe for sightseeing, but no more.  Water Street and the local entrepreneur is a safer bet for them.  I don’t think that Pres Ali is so far gone, so tangled up, that he would frown at poor Guyanese giving their little business to a local man.  It’s for a bag of Karibee rice, and not for Basmati rice imported from the paddy fields of the Himalayas.  Give a pass on that, please.

Further, the foreigners that come to scout opportunities have to eat, therefore they must spend.  And spend they do.  At 200GY$ to 1US$, they can take ownership of a restaurant, even a supermarket, if they were so inclined.  I regret immensely that Pres Ali followed the crowd.  The small people targeted.  The little ones are the problem.  The citizens who didn’t count, suddenly do; shoved into the spotlight and scapegoated.  Will somebody be kind enough to communicate to Pres Ali that silence is strength?  In his case, it may even be wisdom.  Since Guyanese shrink from doing so, then I do.  Inflation is the monster that the PPP Govt fostered.  Inflation is the beast that the PPP Govt owns.  Help Guyana’s poor.  Refrain from hurting them.