WHILE President Irfaan Ali was preparing to launch a transformative project aimed at reshaping how children are taught here and across the wider Caribbean, Azruddin Mohamed was busy embarrassing himself, stumbling over a teleprompter like a man out of his depth. That contrast captures the choice before Guyanese: serious, long‑term statecraft versus a noisy fraud auditioning for high office.
Building a resilient economy for the next few generations of Guyanese is the work of serious leaders, not a circus for hustlers who specialise in chicanery and obfuscation. The president just announced a one-off cash grant for Persons Living with Disabilities, yet Azruddin, behaving like a petulant child, dares to rant about “failed promises.” As for “We Invest in Nationhood,” the only real investment Azruddin has ever made in this country is registering that name and slapping it on his political vanity project.
The PPP/C government has invested heavily in public infrastructure, education, healthcare, and energy, with notable examples including the $122.6 billion spent in Region Ten in just five years, and unprecedented growth in drainage, road, and market access projects across the country. The investments include major national projects such as the Bharrat Jagdeo Demerara River Bridge, new highways, and a $4 billion energy initiative in Wales and Berbice.
And while international organisations such as the IMF have praised the PPP/C for its social transfer programmes that directly benefit Guyanese, Azruddin’s track record is marred by allegations of gold smuggling, tax evasion, and being sanctioned by the U.S. for corruption and money laundering. Azruddin had one job to do: Azruddin had one simple responsibility: keep his affairs clean and run his father’s gold business by the book; he failed that basic test of integrity.
Years ago, President Irfaan Ali envisioned the establishment of the Guyana Digital School. On Friday, he launched it at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre in the presence of hundreds of students from across Guyana. They were joined, virtually, by 30,000 of their peers from across the country and the wider Caribbean to celebrate this remarkable moment.
What President Ali launched on Friday is more than a national project; it is, in effect, a new instrument of Caribbean Integration. The Guyana Digital School is designed to give every child in Guyana, including those in remote and hinterland communities, free and equal access to quality online learning resources. By opening the platform to learners across CARICOM, it heralds a new era of regional integration by connecting students from different countries and serving as a model for digital transformation in education throughout the wider Caribbean.
President Ali has surpassed Eric Williams, Michael Manley and Errol Barrow as key architects of Caribbean integration. When a history of this decade is written, President Ali will undoubtedly emerge as the most influential driver of Caribbean Integration after the 1973 Treaty of Chaguaramas, which established a formal legal framework for CARICOM.
Contrast this accomplishment with Azruddin’s sudden concern for the poor, which rings hollow, given the billions he is accused of siphoning from the very people he now claims to champion. The real story is likely to be laid bare in a Florida courtroom when he is extradited to stand trial. If Azruddin is so concerned about cash grants ahead of Christmas, then there is nothing holding him back from accessing his secret coffers and starting the distribution process.
Instead, Azruddin and the ragtag WIN crew have turned Facebook into their own personal soapbox, screaming that they were robbed on September 1. He and his sister have now chanted this lie multiple times. At his swearing-in as an Opposition MP, he puffed out his chest and proclaimed, “We won the elections,” then branded the PPP/C “a rigged government,” as though theatrics could substitute for evidence. In softball exchanges with friendly journalists, he insisted, “We didn’t get 109,000 votes, we won the elections,” twisting basic arithmetic into conspiracy.
He even waved a temporary shutdown of the GECOM website like a bloody shirt, pretending a routine technical glitch was the smoking gun of fraud. From there, he tumbled into wild claims of ballot box tampering, voter intimidation, and the PPP/C “stealing” the election with state resources, hurling around phrases like “massive fraud” and “stolen elections” in videos and social media rants.
Strip away the drama, and what’s left is not a principled challenge but a man showboating for likes, trying to turn sour grapes into a national narrative. And after all the noise, he has not taken the one step that would test his claims in law: filing an Election Petition.
For those who refuse to see the contradiction, here is another. If the PPP/C stole the elections, that would make it an unlawful government. Which begs the question: why are Azruddin and his motley crew clamouring to have him sworn in as Leader of the Opposition? If Azruddin had an ethical spine, he should want nothing to do with a government that he claims is fraudulent and corrupt. But a question that has been nagging me for a while is this: if a man might indulge in criminal behaviour without political power, what might he do with it?
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.