Dear Editor,
Rugby, like wrestling, is a game for the “fit and prapa.” At the end of the game, one may be mentally and physically exhausted. Parliament is the place of sophistication where you trade blows with words which hurt, and, exchange greetings with smiles which kill. It is not a sport nor a ground for the meek and feeble nor for those with thin skin! Be prepared to indulge in the sporty game of “tit for tat!” If you don’t like it, then, leave it. All’s fair in love and war?

“You can’t keep a good man down,” is a song from the 80’s. Speak the truth and the truth will forever set you free. It is the connivers who stumble when calamity strikes. The truth can never tell lies but lies can sometimes tell the truth. President Ali and the PPP/C Party were voted into governance in 2020 and in the Regional Election in 2023, it was the PNC who again failed to triumph! The school children present in Parliament certainly walked away with a lot of lessons learnt which are not taught in school!

As the estimates for allocations of the first of more trillion dollars budget to follow by the PPP/C Government wined down after being examined in Parliament for approval, it is obvious that the questions, queries and qualms pursued by the Opposition, do reflect that they will be enduring this exercise for many years to come in the future, in this quivering position. Unsupportive of this budget means denying the financial gains catered and provided for by the PPP/C Government, especially for those who qualify in these brackets.

Meanwhile, His Excellency, President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, untouched by the low blows being delivered to him in his absence in Parliament by the nervous Opposition, continues to “break new ground allover” as he perseveres with his people’s outreach program in various villages. He intends to carry on his campaign to “win the hearts of the people through hard work and through results…” A victory at Victoria validates the value of PPP’C venture over the vanity of PNC’s ventilated vendetta!

Undaunted by the threat of a teachers’ strike being urged by the GTU, President Ali visited the Victoria village on the East Coast of Demerara, assumingly a PNC strong hold constituency. He made great inroads with the villagers as they flocked to welcome him and air their concerns. His resolutions were greeted with much appreciation and jubilation.

All reached out to him, shaking his hands, embracing him and exchanging pleasantries while congratulating him on the Government’s performance. Another slap in the face for the Opposition? The present is the new phase and replacing the fading past!

President Ali is hugging the center stage once again as Guyana makes its grand appearance on the international arena. All eyes will be focused on President Ali as he will preside over the United Nations Security Council for the month of February. The envious ones will become pale with the color green. Time for the Party to change color? You can try but you cannot pull a good man down! Venezuela will certainly not “try a thing,” with Guyana.

President Ali, a visionary leader with a proven track record for not being prejudiced in any shape or form and acknowledged by the international community, while walking away with the coveted 2024 Global Africa Leadership Award, simply added salt to the wounded PNC. Those preaching racism received a shock and a setback in their campaign to tarnish the unblemished figure of Guyana’s President. If your own “kit and kin” do not support your unjust cause, then you’re fighting a losing battle!

As leader of Guyana and at the same time CARICOM, Dr. Irfaan Ali is forging a closer and productive relationship between Africa and the Caribbean region. This will again highlight the performance of a President who does not preach or practice “apartheid,” as poorly claimed by those detractors who have their backs against the wall and feverishly grasping at a straw in the stormy ocean. President Ali is “world class material” and all those who refuse to see the daylight are simply digging their own graves and taking down those who are ill advised and deliberately misled!

It’s time for the peeved agitators to stop playing the game of dirty politics while satisfying their own agenda. They need to support the good tidings in a trillion-dollar budget which means well for the progress and prosperity of a nation on a road to becoming a developing and modern economy. Getting the color right and playing the game correct is not calling a heart a spade!

Guyanese are quickly and surely waking up to the smell of pure, strong, grounded coffee grown right here through the thrust of the agriculture agenda of the PPP/C Government. They refused to be fooled by those who are clamoring for the unachieved. They realize that what is possible is done by the careful PPP/C Government and what is impossible is undertaken by the careless PNC Party. That is the difference between the PPP/C planners who propose and the PNC plotters who dispose. Guyanese will have an easy choice at the 2025 General Election.

Yours respectfully,
Jai Lall