Prepared for any reaction

Sep 16, 2026 Editorial, News

(Kaieteur News) – Guyana’s President Irfaan Ali has made bluffing a centerpiece of his political life. Often, he makes statements for public consumption that he cannot backup. In the local environment, his list of such statements is long. Media and information, transparency and accountability, corruption and cleaning house, unity and access to information, are some quick extracts from his postures, that he has had to walk back, tone down, or hide from to avoid embarrassing himself further.

He recently went on Al-Jazeera, and did what he has always done, and which he believes that he is now so good at, that the world falls for it. “We are prepared for any reaction to the court ruling. The court is going to determine the merits of words and facts, and then when the court determines that, and then what is left before is how do we walk back from sometimes the harsh realities of our own words.” When President Ali is like this, there is no stopping him. He believes that reality has to yield to his verbal barrages, that inconvenient contexts are best ignored, and that his salesmanship is enough to carry the day. We have seen leaders like President Ali before. The best way to cut through empty rhetoric is to be sympathetic to those who are prone to ignore facts and circumstances, and place those before the public.