I CAN’T help feeling sorry for President Ali. If I was one of his advisers, obviously I would tell him what he knows already and what he knows he has to do – ignore those who cannot see further than their nose; ignore the ignorant who will always remain ignorant. But you cannot help feeling a bit sorry for him.

In a world of global leaders whose mediocrity and flaws are larger than the world’s oceans, President Ali stands out positively, yet some of his citizens over the past five years cannot praise him for some outstanding achievements. Comparatively speaking in a global context, Guyana has a good president that wants to do good for his subjects, and he is doing good.

Go down the list and isolate one Prime Minister or President that is above Dr. Ali in terms of being a popular leader that has national reach that is expanding rather than shrinking. Go down the list and isolate a Prime Minister and President whose democratic instincts are on display and who rise above those of Dr. Ali. Go down the list and name me a president or prime minister whose tolerance for criticism and bad mouthing of the president or prime minister is larger than Dr. Ali’s.

Guyana’s president is way ahead of the flock of Western countries whose leadership qualities have never been so degenerate compared to the past 100 years. Look at Canada under Justin Trudeau, the US after Obama, Europe especially in France, Germany and Italy and the UK.

This is why I say I feel sorry sometimes for President Ali because he deserves praise instead of condemnation from those who do not support him. Compare Dr. Ali with the rest of his counterparts in the world in terms of democratic tolerance. All these leaders will conspire to hurt journalists, academics, political voices, students, and other sectors of the citizenry for criticising Israel and for saying that there is genocide in Gaza. Look at what the world sees in Europe and the US today, and when we look, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali stands way above them.

In a country where the head of state and head of government are slanderously attacked by vicious people, show me the descent to the gutter by Dr. Ali. He simply doesn’t engage in cuss down politics, where the detractors of the head of government love to be vicious.

Go to the Facebook pages of all his detractors, go to Village Voice, Stabroek News, and Kaieteur News and the viciousness is relentless, but he doesn’t descend to the gutter. He doesn’t even fight back. There was a Prime Minister in the Caribbean, Tom Adams of Barbados, who would “buse” you out if he was attacked the way Ali is in Guyana. I don’t think there is a Caribbean head that simply avoids taking on his/her detractors.

This is President Ali’s style. Look what a wealthy Guyanese man said about the President’s mother, and there was no cussing down from Dr. Ali. Well-known anti-government critics showed no decency and joined in the libelous treatment of the President’s mother. There was not even a reaction from President Ali. A prominent American social media influencer wrote negative things about the wife of President Macron of France, and he sued the lady. Can you say those things about the mother of the prime minister or president in any other country without facing the wrath of the state?

It is this style, this temperament of Mohammed Irfaan Ali that brought him easy re-election last year. When I say that sometimes I feel sorry for the president, it is because you are annoyed at the unconscionable nature of some of his detractors. In the coming days when I look at Guyana in 2025, I am going to reserve harsh words for the mother, father, and aunt of Adrianna Younge for what they did to President Ali.

I don’t care what they say in response on social media. If those three persons know me, they would know I will not even blink an eye at any damning thing they say about me. For me they are not worth even a paragraph of reply. Cussing me out has no psychological, emotional, or scientific effect on me. Never did, never will!

The president of the country went down to the Younge home twice and consoled them and put his government at their disposal in investigating what happened to the child. They turned around, insulted the president by using their own daughter’s and niece’s death for sordid political purposes. They are unfit to be part of modern society. This was not the way to treat a president who cared about them. In 2026, let’s give Jack his jacket. President Ali deserves national acknowledgement for his genuine service to the Guyanese nation.

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.