PRESIDENT Ali returned to Guyana yesterday from the CARICOM Heads meeting in St. Lucia. He touched down on territory he is familiar with. Before he became president, a lot had been thrown at Irfaan Ali.
There was a drive to undermine him during the 2020 election campaign by the widespread rumour that his qualifications were not real even though at the time he was a doctoral candidate at the University of the West Indies. This man has a doctorate not from some obscure American university but from UWI.
After he became president, a conspiracy against him was drawn up to destabilise Guyana using the Adriana Younge death. The Younge tragedy was deliberately exploited to weaken the government with the climax being April 28, 2025 when the post-mortem release was the cover for violent eruption.
The conspiracy to use the Younge tragedy backfired when the family’s pathologist did not do what was expected: conclude that Younge did not drown but was murdered.
The Younge machination fizzled out because there wasn’t scope to continue the propaganda after the second post-mortem. Now we are into conspiracy number two. And the war drums have been beaten by a politician who has no credibility –Azruddin Mohamed. The story is about a farm the president possesses.
When the announcement was made by Mohamed, the usual anti-government preachers open the church door. The successor of the Stabroek News, the Kiskadee Watch, has done two editorials so far. Mohamed then descended into one of Guyana’s most laughable ironies: he wants the president to resign.
Look who wants the President to resign, a man whose wealth is stupendous but questionable. His opulence in Guyana at one point was extremely vulgar. The worth of 15 cars a year ago was a hundred times more costly than the president’s farm.
All Mohamed has done is to show Guyanese an embellished video of the President’s farm. He has done nothing more. He has produced no evidence of wrongdoing by the president.
I know readers will say whether it is Mohamed or John Jones that told the nation of the farm, the farm is the president’s property and there needs to be an explanation. But Mohamed did not wait for an explanation. He wants the President to resign.
Kiskadee Watch, Janet Bulkan, Village Voice, ANUG, APNU, David Hinds, Kaieteur News, and the entire school of anti-Ali haters did not hold off until they heard what the President had to say.
Yesterday, the President offered an explanation about his small farm. I don’t know the largeness of his farm. But the private press puts it at 140 acres.
Is that a large farm? A large number of rice farmers have fields that exceed 1,000 acres. For any type of farm that is into diversified agriculture, cattle-rearing, sheep cultivation, poultry production, then 140 acres cannot sustain such a venture.
So, the question is why the fuss over 140 acres? Again, readers will tell me it is not the size of the farm but the origin of the investment.
Well, Irfaan Ali explained the story of his farm but before he did so, sections of this country were happy to hound down the President without a scintilla of evidence of wrong-doing.
Today, the nation heard what the president had to say. I have no doubt that President Ali’s plausible account of his business possession will not dilute the anti-government sentiments. I would say to the president as I said on the Freddie Kissoon Show last Wednesday and will repeat myself tonight on the same show, he has to get his PR right because the wolves are at the door.
Yesterday, he got his PR right. He gave the nation, not Mohamed and the sharks, an account of his farm.
The president had one thing on his mind as he spoke on this yesterday. He has to rely on context and he did that. He successfully manoeuvred onto the PR territory. He spoke directly to the Guyanese people.
One of the basic lessons of power is that its possessor must at all times, be strategising with the strong willingness not to play into the hands of his enemies.
No prime minister or president can afford to do that. In my last Sunday’s column in Chronicle, I showed where British PM, Keir Starmer, failed while his Guyanese counterpart, Irfaan Ali succeeded.
The President has to know that his detractors are shaping Adriana Younge 2.0. They are waiting for him to slip up. I don’t think he will. He did not yesterday. He will emerge unscathed but the wolves will remain at the door.
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.
