Dear Editor,
I have never seen Bharrat Jagdeo running so scared. Indeed, any leader that has so many clouds and shadows hanging over him would be running scared as the impact of Nigel Hughess’ leadership presence registers. Jagdeo is vulnerable on so many fronts that scratches only the surface: he is transfixed by dark fears and terrified by the record that he can’t shake, no matter how hard he tries. Though intended kindly to Jagdeo, I think he is more than running sacred. Jagdeo is running mad.
Jagdeo has never been charged up on a development in Guyana, as this Nigel Hughes one. Not even the PPP’s return to power, for he knew where things stood (Yanks), and the groundswell of Guyanese support. Not even PPP Congress results, which were subject to his dictates, and a foregone conclusion, anyhow. Not even oil money and loan money flooding into Guyana, have made Jagdeo so much like a tightly coiled jack-in-the box figure. What his insatiable lust for power, his peculiar joys with money, his passionate rages against the PNC, couldn’t do, Hughes did. Nothing and no one like Nigel Hughes have sent such a jolt of high voltage electricity into Bharrat Jagdeo’s sensitive nerve ends and has his lips trembling, his words tumbling out in a torrent.
When the AFC leadership results came out, Jagdeo ran out immediately to deliver his verdict: politicians making a comeback. Recycled, he said. This from a politician who recycled himself from elected president to self-selected president (Ramotar reign), to self-appointed president (Ali regime). Jagdeo was so distraught about the appearance of Hughes that he reduced his weekly tirades against KN and his tormentor, Glenn Lall, pushed those assaults onto the backburner of his volcanic rage. Jagdeo went on a rampage against Hughes to mask his fears. He turns and there is Hughes – an existential threat. He listens and there is Hughes again, haunting his
existence. What is it that Hughes represents that makes Jagdeo hangs himself in full public view? Jagdeo, the once all-conquering is now Jagdeo the blustering when the name Hughes makes the rounds. Jagdeo the haughty is now Jagdeo the hollow when Hughes is held high by many potential Guyanese voters, including that growing section of disillusioned in his own camp.
But there is another development of major significance that confirms the petrified state of Jagdeo. Exxon’s Alistair Routledge came out publicly and laid down Exxon’s judgment: the Nigel Hughes-Exxon relationship does not represent a conflict of interest (more on this in Part II). Who tell he fuh seh suh! Fire and brimstone poured out of a rattled Jagdeo. Though he should have seen that one coming, being the slick-as-a-stick character that he is, Jagdeo immediately donned armour. Exxon has it wrong. It is the first time that Jagdeo has said a negative word, took an opposing posture, against Exxon, and it had to do with Nigel Hughes. Clearly, the presence of Hughes in the political equation is causing Jagdeo to have fits, even expelling bodily fluids excessively, if not uncontrollably. It is not so much what Routledge said, but on whose behalf, he said it. All Guyanese should know by now that when Alistair Routledge speaks, he did not do that on his own. Routledge speaks for more than CEO Darren Woods: he speaks for Exxon’s board of directors, possibly their heavyweight shareholders, to make a thorough job of this. I am asking myself if Mr. Routledge (see how dutiful I can be) did not also speak for America.
Jagdeo is in a world of trouble with Hughes in the political milieu. Nigel Hughes is Bharrat Jagdeo’s worst nightmare. It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving Guyanese. Despite my differences with Mr. Hughes, when Jagdeo is reduced to this quivering, sputtering, defensive state, he [Hughes] and I are on the same page.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
