FOR the long, long time I have been ensconced in social activism and journalism, I have pontificated on the political disease that has entrenched itself in the psychology of Guyana. My perennial point is if you are going to criticise power as undemocratic, then you will lose the battle, the war and even yourself if you do not fight from a position of principled steadfastness.

The undemocratic power you criticise will not go away but win over converts to its side because undemocratic power is going to use your double standards to tell the nation that you have no moral compass to criticise anyone anywhere. I have seen the ubiquity of this political disease all my life.

I was part of the WPA, and it was in that era (the 1970s) that I saw how critics of power can be shockingly hypocritical, and they played into the hands of the Burnham regime. My mind goes back to the early 1970s when I was a freshman at UG. I was active in the WPA when a big quarrel broke out inside the WPA.

It centred on Clive Thomas, who was seen playing lawn tennis in the courtyard of Prime Minister Forbes Burnham’s residence. At the time, Thomas was one of the most crucial critics of the Burnham regime. What Thomas was accused of became child’s play in the WPA after Rupert Roopnarine became the worst example of political double standards.

Three very strategically placed Burnhamites liked me, for reasons I knew, but still remained mysterious to me and will until I die. They were Elvin Mc David, Burnham’s most trusted political and ideological lieutenant and Oliver Hinckson. But the third one was special, former Commissioner of Police and Burnham’s most trusted intelligence chief, Laurie Lewis.

I learnt from them about people who appeared as the world’s purest democrats, willing to remove the PNC, but whose shadows had swallowed their souls and they knew not a damn thing about principles, morality, much less democracy. I have seen degeneracy in most of the people who criticised the Burnham, Hotye, Jagdeo, Granger and Ali governments.

Before space runs out, let’s move to the essence of this column – the double standards of GHK Lall. This gentleman operates with the delusion or illusion that, as a critic of power, he has no obligation to answer criticism of his own activism. He takes the high ground that he is operating on sacrosanct grounds, which makes him special.

It is a delusion of grandeur which has been abruptly shattered over his Gold Board controversy. But that has not brought Mr. Lall down to reality. He still feels comfortable in his majestic understanding that he is special. Because he feels he is special (a title bestowed on him by Glen Lall of the Kaieteur News, Anand Persaud of the Stabroek News and Denis Chabrol of Demerara Waves), Lall is more entrenched in the belief that he does not have any obligation to respond to people who exposed his fragile claim to righteousness.

Mr. Lall held a contorted press conference in which only his patrons, Stabroek News and Demerara Waves, were present and he told them that in the document on gold smugglers in Guyana that the Americans sent to him, the Mohameds were not on the list. But Lall’s boss contradicted Lall’s press conference delivery. Then Minister of Natural Resources, Raphael Trotman, said that the very document contained the names of Mohamed.

Trotman also denied as Lall stated in his press conference, that he, Lall, forwarded the American document to him as Minister. Here are the words of Trotman: “I don’t have any recollection of receiving  any document from GHK Lall.” Now Trotman made these two statements on Wednesday. The next day, Thursday and the day after, Friday (yesterday), Lall published two columns in Kaieteur News and chose not to provide answers to Trotman’s position.

Lall only spoke about his time as chairman of the Gold Board when Guyanese Critic called him out. For the two years that the Mohameds were under OFAC sanctions, Lall never said a word. Why? Because Lall did not feel, in those two years, that he had an obligation to talk about it. And when he did last week, he chose Travis Chase and the Stabroek News to report to, not the general media community in Guyana.

The Vice-President, Mr. Jagdeo asserted that Lall, when as Gold Board chairman, facilitated a mining licence for Travis Chase. Secondly, how did Lall become head of the Gold Board in 2017? Thirdly, does he have majority financing in Demerara Waves and fourthly, Lall’s profession on the electoral roll is listed as lawyer. Is he? The man is so pompous that he refuses to answer those four questions.

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.