Columnists heading towards catastrophic implosion

Dear Editor,
KN columnist GHK Lall has staked his career on criticizing Vice President Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo. He has experimented with a few methods and styles against the Vice President. These include, but are not limited to, name-calling, digressions, exploitation of irrelevant matter, half-truths, clumsy storytelling; and the saddest of them all: writing that takes the form of bad poetry.
The “brother Jagdeo thing” does not work either. It is a sign of weakness.
If you want evidence of GHK Lall’s elliptical writing, just read this paragraph from his column. Here he is: “Dr. Jagdeo’s position is that Exxon does not decide for him, does not tell him what to say, what to do, and when to say or do so. I am sorry brother Jagdeo, but please tell that to the Marines (he can check with his American friends at Exxon on the meaning of that string of words), or to somebody now the proud owner of the new Demerara River Bridge years away from completion” (KN June 30, 2023). Can anyone say that they understand this gobbledygook?
On the empirical side of things, GHK Lall is worse off. This is so because every substantive claim he has made to date can be proven to be demonstrably incorrect. The inaccuracies are not simply plentiful and predictable, but form a core part of GHK Lall’s epistemology. This means that the very way in which he produces ‘knowledge’ (or what he thinks is knowledge) is self-decomposing, because the basic facts of his arguments are highly suspect.
The attacks on the diplomatic corps, and especially against US Ambassador Sarah-Ann Lynch, illustrate the point well. Here is Lall: “Our resource curse explains the energies, bustles, objectives of Her Excellency, US Ambassador Sarah Ann Lynch (and like-minded European cronies)” (KN 6/28/2023).
In the above, the concept of the resource curse is mangled to be politically weaponised. Having achieved that by twisting the resource curse from an economic phenomenon to a political technology, he then proceeds to falsely claim that the interests of Exxon (and Hess) purely animate US diplomacy. This is a massive distortion because, since 1992, the US has been working to make sure the PNC, APNU and their partners, AFC and WPA, do not steal elections or make Guyana into an economic basket case.
Finally, for good measure, GHK Lall takes a low, undignified dig at European diplomats by naming them “cronies.”
The Trotman book and his subsequent public offerings have been seized upon by GHK Lall to reignite the most sordid, unforgivable, and dishonourable lie in modern Guyanese history. The lie is that Granger was removed from the presidency because he was against the PSA his own administration signed in 2016. Again, The FACT is that the Grander Administration signed the PSA in 2016, and never did anything to undo their pathetic work. I suppose the US$18 million was good enough, because it was a “gift”!
One really must wonder about Mr. Lall’s motivations. Both Granger and he are men of religion. And readers might remember that, only recently, MP Annette Ferguson was gushing that Burnham had been sent by God. Are we in some kind of eschatological survivalism here? Will GHK Lall soon tell us that Burnham was a brilliant man who frigged up Guyana because he did not have oil revenues?
Let me help Mr. Lall with the truth here. Jagan was deposed, and Burnham was installed in 1964. Between 1964 and 1992, elections were rigged, the economy went bankrupt, citizens were assassinated, and mass exodus began. In place of a nation, we had a morgue.
Now, Mr. Lall needs to listen carefully here: The excesses of the Cold War gave way to a new ‘apetura.’ The Carter Center listened to the cry for help and prevailed upon the Bush Administration to reverse course on Guyana. In October 1992, democracy was restored to Guyana. The PNC, and not long after the WPA, based on a perverted form of ethnic nationalism, began a campaign of destabilisation. Slo fiah; mo fiah, and other technologies of intimidation were put in place. Yet, democracy held on, even if barely.
In 2015, the ABCE countries declared the APNU-AFC winner of the presidential election and Granger was installed. The APNU-AFC was so corrupt and inept that one of their own crossed the floor and a no-confidence motion was passed in December 2018. Instead of a constitutionally mandated election in months, the APNU-AFC held on to power for fifteen months. During that time, Mr. GHK Lall had a top job in the APNU-AFC administration.
The election finally came in March 2020. The APNU-AFC lost, but tried for five months to steal the vote. Vaseline and bedsheets were part of the technology employed in the rigging attempt. They were forced to abandon their grand election theft. An independent COI fingered the APNU-AFC and their cronies for election irregularities.
In the meantime, Exxon discovered oil and the David Granger Administration signed a PSA in 2016. Granger did nothing to make any changes to an admittedly bad deal. The PPP/C has taken the position that there is more to be gained by developing more favourable contracts in future PSAs. President Irfaan Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo have been using every national and international technical resource available to ensure that we do not make the same mistakes at did Granger and his “group.”
Those are the facts. Mr. Lall’s narratives are bound to catastrophically implode, because these facts are the only ones that can and have been corroborated by every independent election official, and every independent observer of development in Guyana: Commonwealth Observer Group, OAS, Carter Center, CARICOM, the EU, and every reputable independent organization in Guyana. Add to that the voices of regional giants like Owen Arthur, Mia Mottley, and Ralph Gonsalves!
The nation again thanks Ambassador Lynch for her service. Prime Minister Phillips expressed the appreciation of a grateful nation only days ago, and soon President Ali, bother Jagdeo, and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will talk about how to deepen our ties. I feel confident that the top of the agenda will be how to preserve democracy in Guyana. I personally recommend better quality journalism, with added responsibility for some columns based on truth, wisdom, and dignity. As of today, we have a long way to go.

Sincerely,
Dr Randolph Persaud