Dear Editor,
I listened to a recording from November 2019, when Bharrat Jagdeo was Guyana’s Leader of the Opposition. It was of revelations in many parts. There was the powerful and inspiring from Jagdeo. Now, what emerges from the mouth in magical mysteries from the same national leader is a far cry from the man I heard, the one that Guyanese coexist with today. It is today’s night that could not be more distant, more damaging, and more dangerous, from the Jagdeo of 2019.
Before proceeding, this is shared with citizens. Today, the Vice President, a former President, is mentioned by his name, a departure from norm. In the 2019 recording, I heard an Opposition Leader, I could vote for. Opposition Leader Jagdeo was in sweeping, soaring trajectory with what has to be done with this nation’s oil wealth, to correct the abject failures that the PNC Government executed in 2016, to make good for Guyanese. I heard a Jagdeo speaking with strength, confidence, conviction, determination; even with a swagger, something laudable in this instance.
Opposition Leader Jagdeo stood like a Guyanese colossus ready to stare down the greedy, grasping oil powers, and manifest to them what real national power is about. From his words alone, I gathered a leader incensed to the crescendo of a full head of steam, one not willing to take one prisoner in this war for better for the Guyanese people. It was a grand, exciting moment from an Opposition Leader filled with righteous wrath, and powered by the irresistible urge to do something, to make things right. Things like renegotiation, like ring-fencing, like taxes. Those were the specific words of Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, the areas he himself singled out in the 2016 oil contract signed by the former Coalition Government. For the longest, lingering moment, I confess to the unprecedented: Bharrat Jagdeo came over to me, registered deeply within, as a leader who committed heart and soul, come hell or holocaust, to deliver better for the struggling, hoping people of this impoverished land.
I could not have been more wrong on what I concluded that Opposition Leader Jagdeo stood for, would get done. The evidence, the record, is in the here and the now. Circumstances have caused me to listen to some of what Vice President Jagdeo has to say today on what he is going to do about this national treasure. It is not the same man, not the same steely, dogged leader of now ancient 2019. Power in his hands has reduced his presence to paralysis. The coherent convictions of the old 2019 Opposition Leader Jagdeo have crystallized into this crippling human caricature that hobbles around listlessly, impotently today. I prefer the 2019 version of Bharrat Jagdeo than the one of recent: disconnection, dissembling, deterioration and all the negatives that condemn him to the worst fate: a man without respect for his own words, own commitments, own sworn fealties to Guyanese.
Today, Guyanese observe the shocking transformation of this new Bharrat Jagdeo. It is an unfinished product with more deficiencies hovering. Where Opposition Leader Jagdeo was straight and sure of himself, today’s pathetic reality is that Vice President Jagdeo is a compelling picture of knots and torments: a man who skips about, dances all over, vacillates conveniently, stonewalls when such suits his purposes. Where Guyana’s oil, Guyana’s oil contract and renegotiation, ring-fencing, and taxes are all concerned, Vice President Jagdeo is a leader without spirit, lacking strength, devoid of resolve. Today, when power is in his hands, he is a shadow of a shadow; a formless outline in Guyana’s oil skyline. His wisdom and courage have fled now that it is time to stand up and deliver. His leadership incense smells of pretense; raw, naked impotence.
Now, I submit this most ordinary question to fellow Guyanese: where did the Jagdeo that was Opposition Leader go? It may be more appropriate to place that loaded inquiry before Ambassador Lynch, and Exxon’s heads, Woods and Routledge. The last questions, two unsparing statements, placed before citizens are these: was Bharrat Jagdeo the genuine article as Opposition Leader in what he said about doing with this oil, extracting better for Guyanese? And, finally, has anything that Vice President Jagdeo said, says, and will say about Guyana’s oil patrimony an authentic expression from an authentic fellow human presence, a leader renowned for his might, mysteries? I shall say no, have no choice but to say no, in answer to both questions. This I regret.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
