Dear Editor,
On Guyana’s 56th Republic Day, “President says Republic thriving, democracy vibrant” (SN, Feb 24, 2026).[1] The Republic is thriving, said the president, or similar such words. Great to hear, Excellency. It is thriving so much, flying so high, that a little, negligible, moment such as acknowledging the presence of the Hon. Opposition Leader was seemingly beyond Excellency Ali’s skills, below his dignity. What could be more credible about how much this Republic is thriving than the national leader, on a momentous national occasion, finding a word, the sparest word, of recognition for the Opposition Leader? What could be so terrible to this vibrant democracy of Guyana, to go beyond the grand words, with that simple human gesture?
Words are cheap, and the more they flow with foundation lacking, with corroboration not forthcoming, those are the cheapest. So cheap as to be contemptible. Who am I to tell a president that his clothing has holes? Holes so large and so many that they make one wonder if he has on any clothes at all. The little people, those that everyone wants to hush up, for speaking out of turn, for pointing out the obvious, do possess their own wisdom, and that unrestrained enthusiasm that characterizes the independent and the reflexively bold.
This democracy is so vibrant that one of its pillars, the Fourth Estate, totters like the leaning Tower of Pisa. Maybe, it is the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, all terrace and lattice work, the intricate embroidery of words so hollow, that they make the worst hypocrites of those who own them, utter them. I point to the pending departure of Stabroek News, and one of the reasons behind its going [ad revenues staggered punishingly, deliberately, as a matter of official policy]. I call for a big round of applause for government and president on a hatchet job well-premeditated, well-planned, and well-executed. If I am the only one to do so, then that’s fine, too.
Excellency Ali was in fine form: ‘the Republic is thriving.’ I make a Mashramani gift to him of SN’s revealing cost of living series; all 169 pamphlets of it. They reveal – indeed, confront and contradict – just how much this Republic under Pres. Ali’s PPP Gov’t is thriving. For sure, the Republic is thriving, but who are the ones that can claim to be doing so. The president can ignore the Leader of the Opposition. I do not think that he does as well ignoring those not thriving in this rich oil-laden Republic. I read of a magistrate and her family being reviled; a Guyana Police Force that had a Botox injection leading to a radical peeling of its skin; and those disagreeing with the PPP Govt demonized and criminalized.
And, I must agree with Pres. Ali that Guyana’s democracy is vibrant. Vibrant with vileness and viciousness; vibrant with premeditated monstrosities and the products of many a malice on taxpayers’ dollars. Vibrant with the extinguishing of the leading media light in Guyana. Vibrant in that hallmark of democracy – mounds of secrets. Vibrant with major institutional arms of the State reengineered and repeopled, so condoning and cover up become the norms of Guyanese life.