I NEVER liked GHK Lall when he first appeared as a columnist in Stabroek News. And I still don’t. One pyrotechnical, obnoxious characteristic stood out – he was seeking attention. And he got that attention by the use of a writing style that no one in the world understood. He was just showing off that he knows the English language, oblivious to the fact that he was seen as a comic by the nation.

In his zeal to garner attention, he picked on a known person – me. He wrote that he knew three businessmen who built my home. I should have sued him for libel but he benefitted from my DNA- I don’t sue people. I think criticism comes with the territory.

Please believe me when I say that when I read that GHK Lall is suing Mikhail Rodrigues, the person that goes under the name “Guyanese Critics” I was in an uncontrollable rage. If Lall had sued someone for saying he cheated in a cricket match, I would have understood his reaction. But Lall is suing Rodrigues for the accusation of corruption when he has used the corruption accusation against PPP leaders and the government of Guyana dozens and dozens of times.

I decided to Google Lall to ascertain the frequency of his corruption charge against PPP leaders and there were so many that they simply cannot hold in a column if you reproduce just ten of them. I have offered just two samples. One- “The C in PPPC stands for corruption – Kaieteur News, April 27, 2025. Two- Corruption is an addiction for the PPP – Village Voice, June 26, 2024.

One wonders if Lall knows what he is getting into with that trial. One hopes that Nigel Hughes and Christopher Ram advise Lall that when one goes into a libel trial, the defence will bring up the action and behaviour in the past of the plaintiff. One would hope that Hughes in particular would advise Lall on this. Hughes’ wife, Cathy, lost a libel writ brought against Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo a few months ago and several statements made by her did not help her case.

One of Ms. Hughes’ emanations was that Mr. Jagdeo offered Venezuela a channel to the sea as a solution to solving Venezuela’s claim on Guyana. Ms. Hughes admitted that she had no proof of that. One would like to think the lawyers of Guyanese Critic will press Mr. Lall to produce evidence of corruption in the PPP or the Government of Guyana.

If he cannot, I assume Rodrigues’ lawyers (I believe there is going to be a battery of defence lawyers) are then going to inform the court that Lall, like Cathy Hughes, cannot produce evidence for accusations they have made. This is certainly going to weaken Lall’s case if he cannot produce evidence of governmental corruption or corruption inside the PPP.

For a man that is literally a frenetic hater of the PPP Government as expressed in five forums – daily column in Kaieteur News, daily letter in the Stabroek News, weekly Kaieteur Radio podcast and weekly column in Village Voice and weekly column in Demerara Waves it is unthinkable that against the background of such aggressive activism, Lall would want to sue anyone. I say unapologetically, for someone who dishes it out in such ugly ways, it is obnoxious that he would want to sue someone who is also involved in political activism.

I hope when this case goes to trial, Lall is asked to expand on three invisible dimensions of his politics. Rodriques’ lawyers must ask him to name the three businessmen who built my home. Secondly, does he have part ownership of Demerara Waves? And thirdly, how did he come to be appointed as Gold Board chairman?

Finally, it was indeed comical to read in Lall’s statement of claim in his letter to Rodrigues that Lall is a Eucharistic Minister. I don’t know what a Eucharistic Minister is. I asked Leonad Craig and Bishop Juan Edghill what is a Eucharistic Minister. Both of them were funny in their response.  I am not a religious person at all and the little I know of religion it would be from being born into a Hindu family and married to a Muslim woman. I don’t know anything about Christianity.

Mr. Lall should be ashamed of himself as a Eucharistic Minister for writing the ugly condemnations he penned and pens with colossal space over the past ten years. It is for this reason I find that his resort to libel is very obnoxious. This is going to be an absorbing court case. I close with a curiosity. Are Nigel and Ram doing the case pro-bono or is Lall paying them? Just asking!

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.