Dear Editor,
Everyone that I have spoken to about trigger happy Minister Kellawan Lall says the same thing: at his age, Minister Lall should be a happily married family man instead of a gray-haired paramour fighting a teenager in a rum shop over a woman.
Most people say Lall’s alleged actions: abusive language, physical assault, driving next to the young man with his vehicle and firing his gun in a public place all seem to have broken the law; but everyone agrees on this one thing – no justice will come from this case.
“The government will wait and wait till things quiet down and then sweep the whole thing under the carpet,” one supporter said, adding: “this is not Jagan’s PPP. . . This bunch start doing they own thing as soon as the man eye shut.” In his mind, a government responsible to the people ended with Dr Jagan’s death and now we have an elected oligarchy.
There are many conflicting things said about the attitude of this government: arrogant, high-handed, power drunk, pridefully contemptuous and even Burnham-like. Steve Hemraj, a letter writer in the Stabroek News encapsulates it all when he referred to an attitude of “personal bitchiness” spewing from the heights of government.
Others argue that the government is beseiged by determined saboteurs, vicious detractors, and a jealous and unprincipled political opposition so it needs to be firm and decisive to govern effectively.
Guyanese are caught in a quandary: This government is the only political entity capable of developing Guyana. We have had 28 years of the opposition in power in which time the country was reduced to being among the poorest in this hemisphere. The PNCR is not a credible alternative to the PPP/C.
Until Guyanese can rally around a more trustworthy and competent group of people willing to lead the nation, the PPP/C, despite its obvious flaws, remains the only electable political group in Guyana.
What is needed then is a mechanism to keep in check the growing tendency of this administration towards authoritarianism. It is in the interest of all Guyanese not to allow the country to slip back into a dictatorship. An attitude of “personal bitchiness” is not a reflection of competence, it is the clear sign of a petty dictator.
Yours faithfully,
Justin de Freitas