H@RD TRUTHS BY GHK LALL – Bharrat Jagdeo condemns himself, eats his own words

Nov 22, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – Guyana’s Vice President, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, knows better.  He knows how to manage the government’s business better.  He knows that he has to manage the oil business much better.  Most of all, Bharrat Jagdeo is fully aware that there is a crying need for him to manage himself better.  Because he is fearful of addressing the latter, he has failed at the others, and whatever else is left unsaid.  The heavy lifting, the dirty job, is left to me.

Occasionally, I am treated to a tape that conveys pieces of the Vice President’s weekly press conferences.  I grimace. The voice heard, and the tones and temperature are not those of a national leader.  Can’t be. Those tricky answers cannot be from an Oil Czar in full control of his senses, the demands of his crucial portfolio.  Really not so.  The impatience and arrogance are not of a citizen who was country head for 12 years.  Just shouldn’t be. I say no more; nothing heavier or sharper.  Like I said, the former headman knows better, and should take greater care that he doesn’t register locally and overseas as an out-of-control headcase.  As is, I won’t. I come not to beatdown on Bharrat Jagdeo, but to give him a hand, to open his eyes, and reveal to him the side of him that he prefers stays secret, hence untouched.

Listening to Dr. Jagdeo and his surliness with oil issues, I say to myself: this is not the same man from a few short years back. Parsing through his new positions and newer vocabulary (hedges and herrings), I hear a man sounding as I used to before (investors and returns).  This is the born again Jagdeo, a holy roller blasting for runs, like Rohan Kanhai.  The concern is that brother Bharrat is not scoring for Guyana, but for the opposing team, ExxonMobil Guyana Ltd.  Quick aside: the only thing Guyana in that name change is the maximum that could be extracted from here at the least cost, and with the least interference.

Then, I hear Guyana’s Oil Champion talking up a storm for Exxon, and I ask myself: where did this incarnation of Jagdeo come from?  As the leader Jagdeo rails in raucous recklessness at dissenting commentators, and the independent press that is critical, something dawned on me. This was Jagdeo three to four years ago denouncing the 2016 oil contract at his most feverish pitch, when he was Leader of the Opposition.  He was degrading more than the PNC Government for the contract; he was also degrading that other party to the same 2016 oil contract, Exxon. The contract and Exxon go together, cannot be separated.  This is regardless of how much the PNC Government contributed, and was rightly blistered by then Mr. Jagdeo, who was not so hung-up on honorary recognition and worship.  Exxon was the contract then, and the same Jagdeo-condemned contract is Exxon today.  Castigating the contract, thus, means kicking Exxon, its architect.

But today, the new and improved Bharrat Jagdeo criticizes (some say curse) those who do the same thing that he once did for a long season with that Exxon contract.  Today, Bharrat Jagdeo imagines himself to be some dusky imitation of a Native American Indian kowtowing and catering to the commands of the Great White Fathers in Duke Street and Texas, with Ogle in the making. Today, Bharrat Jagdeo takes offense at commentators and the unbeholden media that stand for the exact same issues about contract (Exxon) perversities as he once did, save for differences in language and forms of presentation. Today, Bharrat Jagdeo is up in arms against those who are saying, writing, doing what he would have been representing were he still the Opposition Leader. I repeat so that Guyanese everywhere grasp this startling assertion and point: if Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo was still the Leader of the Opposition, he would be the loudest voice, the strongest presence, the most consistent spirit against the oil contract. As I said before, because Exxon is inseparable from the oil contract, then in some sketch, shape, or schematic, Jagdeo would have been, (no matter how unstated, how unrepresented) against Exxon.

Today, patriotic Guyanese commentators and media reporters are concentrating, writing, and speaking about what was dearest to Jagdeo some three plus years ago.  In other words, they are continuing the work that Opposition Leader, Bharrat Jagdeo was very much in the thick of just a few moons hence.  Therefore, when Dr. Jagdeo is incensed at those who point to Exxon and call him out, he can only be incensed at himself.  That is, unless he has eaten his own words, and there is no trouble doing so. Unless he has come to a new understanding (unaided by Exxon) of how the world of oil really works. To emphasise my unchanging efforts in this country, there is no interest, no value to me, in making Vice President Jagdeo, Guyana’s World Champion of Oil down to the canvas. My sole objective is to lift this country up.  This means that my brother Bharrat could be lifted up too.  But only if he is of that mind. I am here to heal not deal.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, GHK Lall, Government, H@rd Truths, Vice President

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