One Guyana; two presidents; three narcissists

Oct 24, 2024 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

Kaieteur News – The common hope is for one Guyana. It is one that labors under the harness of two presidents. What is not so well known to most citizens, is that there are three narcissists. President Ali is one, President Jagdeo is the second, and the battle for the third narcissist’s spot is between Dr. Ashni K. Singh and Dr. Mohabir A. Nandlall, minister of money and minister of law respectively.

Of the latter two, a kind hand will be extended in this writing; there will be little else to say about them, so they can exhale slowly.

President Ali first fell in love with the power and pomp of the presidency. Then, the disturbances began: he fell head over heels in love with himself. Forget about the greatest, for that is small change. In Excellency Irfaan Ali’s head, he is the smartest, the quickest, the sharpest. The last can be interpreted any way that pleases. Who cannot be awed by a head of state who is so far gone that he fancies himself a combination of Sharukh Khan, Amitabh Bachan and Denzil Washington, with a tiny bit of Sydney Poitier thrown in to add a touch of class to the picture. If there is one word that captures the substance of Mohamed Irfaan Ali it is dramatic. If there are Guyanese who need a full sentence, then have it: a character that is pure theater. Instead of the theatric, President Ali would have preferred acrobatic, but there are some built-in inhibitions. The man and leader likes to make speeches.

In Ali, there is a national leader who has perfected the art of saying much without saying anything at all; he is a regular airball. He just loves the spotlight and has developed thick skin in ignoring the blights. An entire opera is President Ali, and he needs no help from any supporting cast; he hogs the limelight, whether it is for $200,000 announcements or an Exxon-approved script about sanctity of contract. Guyana’s leading screen man is busy admiring himself that he has eyes only for his beautiful mind and outline. All those hungry people. Denial. All those unhappy citizens. More denial spiced up with some curt dismissals.

All those naysayers, which lead to more denials, then dismissals, and last distance. How dare them to disagree with El Supremo? The audacity of these insurgents and subversives to challenge El Magnifico? A hundred years ago, the poor Mexicans had to live with Emiliano Zapata and Pancho Villa. A hundred years later, poorer Guyanese now know what it is to live under the yoke of Dr. Irfaan Ali and Dr. Bharat Jagdeo. No bandidos or cheap, two-bit desperados are those two, but the twin narcissistic terrors with whom Guyanese are forced to live. Both are prone to severe mood swings. With friendlies and the garlanding crowd of swooning worshippers, both narcissists are in their natural element, with the self-love coming out of their pores at drenching volumes. In the blink of an eye, both can change from a rough-edged version of Dr. Jekyll to a snarling, fiendish impersonation of Mr. Hyde. In the case of both, it is not impersonation, but the real article. Mess with them and be prepared for a truckload of stone to be dumped on one’s head. It could be through the array of the PPP Government’s secret weapons: social media, State media, and fake media, with all three being inseparable.

The other half of Guyana’s narcissist club is Bharat Jagdeo. There is a top political figure given to violent changes in personal atmospherics. Cross him up and a Pandora’s Box of petulance, political pestilence, and unmanly virulence are unleashed. It is Jagdeo’s book on political science. Jagdeo is a man with a stellar record: he never accepts responsibility for failures. Is de tek-knee-cul peeple. Or some dumb flunkey ready to perform the role of monkey’s uncle. Bottomline: narcissists doan tek no blame; no way, no time. It is always somebody else’s weakness, lack of the required effort, that brought on Guyanese disasters by the bunches. Another fitting title for Jagdeo’s book on politics and national leadership would have been ‘Bad Publicity is for Dummies.’ The two top national narcissists in Guyana are so paranoid that somebody is always out to get them. It is at these moments that the former president and Guyana’s oil sovereign (must write separately about that flash) mutates from what is verbal gymnastics to political hysterics. He seeks to lay out some undesirables or gets his goon squads to do the undemocratic jobs for the franchise. It is a one-man franchise. I believe that narcissism has taken such crippling control of both Presidents Ali and Jagdeo that both have hidden microphones in the folds of their clothes, so that they can be energised by a constant stream of babble in their ear: Who is the best. Jagdeo is the best. Who is at the peak of the crest. Ali is the best of the best. For personal safety, just don’t put that to the test. This is how the compulsion towards mythmaking has converted both Irfaan Ali and Bharat Jagdeo to becoming legends in their own eyes. Narcissists R’ Us.