Hell hath no fury like a publisher scorned
–with a ‘rag’ at his disposal, and malice aforethought

OLD Kai has now come to the conclusion, like many other Guyanese, that Glenn Lall is operating like a spurned lover, and anyone who has ever seen the movie, “A Thin Line Between Love And Hate” with Martin Lawrence and Lynn Whitfield, would know the dangerous consequences of being “spurned”.He apparently has still not gotten over the fact that then Head of State, President Bharrat Jagdeo had placed a pause on their friendship a few years ago. There is speculation that the reason for the move was because of an attempt to abuse the open channel of communication he had with the President to leverage as many concessions as he possibly could.

This channel of communication was confirmed by Lall himself when, at the scene of the massacre of his pressmen during the crime wave, he disclosed to the media that he had immediately called the President and informed him of the situation.

As expected once spurned, in a fit of jealously, he has apparently decided to take the attack to any and every individual seen as close to the former President, either professionally or on a personal level, such as his relatives. He apparently sees this as one of the effective avenues in seeking revenge against his former friend; it is kind of a mobster mentality where, if you cannot take out your target, you try to take out everyone around him. Hence, almost every day, Lall expertly uses his minions over at Kaieteur News to do his bidding. The secret US cables which stated that “Lall has his pulse firmly on the (criminal) underworld”, serves to confirm this mentality. They have used every trick in the book to attack this man, Jagdeo, even to the point of labelling him an ideological racist.
The “Dem Boys Seh” articles put together by the editor and some of his senior reporters is a nasty, hate-filled piece which confirms how they have turned their pens into swords to attack people at the bidding of their paymaster. This “concern” of theirs about having a genuine interest in unmasking corruption is simply a cloak they effectively use to execute their sinister agenda.
Now, almost every day, the Kaieteur News publishes a set of articles titled, “The heist of Guyana”, in which it attempts to show the former President in some

shady dealings with his friends or close associates. Basically, what they’re trying to do is give the impression that these are all “shell” operations which are ultimately controlled by Bharrat Jagdeo for his own personal financial interest.
Looking at “The tale of Bharrat Jagdeo and his best friend, Bobby Ramroop” recently, the first question mark arose as they (the Kaieteur News) try to establish that deliberate concessions were granted to Ramroop to enrich him immediately after Mr. Jagdeo was sworn in as President in 1999. In doing so, they claimed that Ramroop paid close to half-a-billion Guyana dollars in August 1999 for 60% of the shares in the New GPC. What they have established with this bit of information is that Ramroop had significant assets way before Jagdeo became President, and just like any other businessman, he was always looking for opportunities to expand and diversify his operations. Any investor consultant will tell you that this is one such way of staying ahead of the competition.
They then moved on to the Sanata Textile Mill deal, implying that this was another shady transaction intended to give Ramroop further leverage. This is all nonsense, as I can recall that Ramroop is not the first investor who was given the Sanata Complex to operate; another Chinese company, in the late 90s to early 2000, had expressed interest, and was given the go-ahead to conduct their garment operations there, after it was abandoned by the previous operators for several years. They were not successful, as I guess the demand for readymade clothing and the popular western brands made producing local garment unprofitable.
Sometime later, I personally visited the site and was appalled at the state it was in, much like the claybrick factory when I also visited that location. The place was rundown and looked like Chernobyl in Russia. No one was interested in that rundown facility; not even Glenn Lall. And then one smart businessman saw its potential and was willing to invest his money in rehabilitating it. Bharrat, on the other hand, as President of Guyana, recognised that any investment is better than its current state, more so since it would have created many jobs for Guyanese.
This foolishness about concessions is another red herring, because ever since 1992 when the PPP/C came into Government, it is concessions that were used to lure investors here. The PPP/C Government recognised long ago that sometimes you have to give up immediate gains with an eye on the long-term benefits for the country. Bharrat has been vindicated, because, indeed, Ramroop and his company has continued to expand its investment scope in several sectors across our country, and in the process has created more jobs, and injected money into the local economy. For Kaieteur News, this is a crime, as apparently only Glenn Lall can invest in a newspaper business, then diversify and take up holdings in Guyana Stores Limited among other ventures.
But wait! During the time Glenn Lall and Bharrat Jagdeo were friends, he and a colleague reportedly acquired 70% of the shares in Guyana Stores, which has vast assets in prime commercial areas across Guyana; and this occurred in 2000, also a few months after Jagdeo became President. So, if you use the yardstick of Kaieteur News, that the then President used his influence to acquire assets for his friends, why then has Glenn Lall not revealed how he acquired the Guyana Stores complex?
What we do know is that despite being a friend of Jagdeo’s, he, like everyone else, had to go through the necessary procedures, to the point that today, the matter is before the Court, because Lall and his friend have been accused of not fully honouring their obligations which they had agreed to.
We are told that there has been serious skulduggery in the operations of Guyana Stores, but this matter is currently before the Court. Why Kaieteur News has shown a lack of interest in going after and exposing such a story is self-evident. This confirms that it conveniently selects who to attack and who to ignore.
Finally, not once has Mr. Glenn Lall ever indicated that he was asked to pay kickbacks to any official of the government in the process of acquiring his vast business acquisitions. Even though he was best friends with Bharrat Jagdeo, the former president never requested anything from him during this period. So, how come Jagdeo is suddenly tainted the moment he decides to sever ties with Glenn Lall because of his abuse of that friendship?
On the other hand, the public relations man for the government, Kwame McCoy, has publicly stated on more than one occasion that it was Glenn Lall who offered him a bribe to facilitate the sale of his old press machine to the Guyana Chronicle. Kwame had stated that he rebuffed Glenn, as he refused to participate in any corrupt transaction.
So, in reality, there is no heist of Guyana; there was an attempted heist of assets by abusing a friendship, and when it was discovered, ties were severed. The man who failed in his heist has still not gotten over this reality, and because there is a thin line between love and hate, he continues to seek vengeance, using his newspaper like a mercenary to achieve his sinister agenda.