Jul 16, 2026 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

(Kaieteur News) – The invocation of South Africa’s Phala Phala farm controversy in the debate over President Irfaan Ali’s farm represents a remarkable exercise in political analogy gone astray. It is an attempt to borrow the drama of one controversy and paste it onto another situation that bears little resemblance except for one detail: both involve farms owned by presidents.

But a farm is not automatically a scandal. A farm is not a synonym for corruption. A farm is not a crime scene merely because a politician owns one. If that were the standard, then every presidential garden, business investment, cattle pasture, or family property around the world would become a potential criminal investigation waiting to happen.