Dear Editor,
The world of Guyana is immovably upside down, and never ceases to amaze. There is the billowing enveloping stench of “most qualified”-emanating from government quarters on that City Hall appointment; one must wonder whether we have all lost our minds. That is, if there was any with which to begin.
Sure I understand corporate longevity and institutional memory, but College of Preceptors (the old “See Pee”) as a qualification in this day and age? Is this the best that can be done, that should be expected? I mean what about those of us who laboured then-and now-with the rigours of trigonometry and quadratics, dangling modifiers and ablative case? Yeah, what about obtaining that vaunted “cagaaj” as the old people counseled repeatedly? Clearly, it has lost its meaning, its value, and any related pedigree. In a world that pays a premium for communist obeisance and unswerving loyalty, that is understandable; but what about the standards prevailing at the nation’s highest institution of learning? Once again, “See Pee” trickles into the consciousness, and not from the periphery. I don’t wish to hear of this so-called “mature student” business. Certainly, not for the law programme. If this is what obtains, then is it any wonder that the realms of local jurisprudence are, shall we say, so murky, and so filigreed with the dull bronze of the unschooled, the unthinking, and the unimpressive? It is a no-brainer that even the mentally supine can be a counselor, a president, a leader.
Then out of that same City Hall comes the startling revelation that over half the monstrosities going up in Georgetown are unapproved. Well, well… Here we are –just one more piece of evidence of the total disregard for authority, and the law. I can imagine the perpetrators crowing ‘I am a friend of you know who. Now get out of my face. I have business to do and money to make. You should know that washing and cleaning is a 24/7 occupation.’ Someone else shared this gem: there can be no sanctions such as demolition, as the City does not have the wherewithal to tear down the unauthorized structures. Why, they can’t even pick-up the garbage! And the building people know this. In the meantime, the self-described entrepreneurs (so was Pablo) squat on our vision, our passageway (private expression of “eminent domain”), and our daily existence in a multiplicity of illegitimate ways. The ordinary man sees all of this, and he himself is not averse to squatting, too. His is not construction oriented, but purely a matter of intestinal landscaping.
Next, I read this business about President Ramotar and his leaving a possible legacy. Will people get real in this country! The leader does not have anything resembling a present, and we dare to talk of legacy. He thinks the future is something best left to soothsayers, and necromancy is visionary; and we associate the word legacy with his tenure. Here is someone who has reduced the presidency to an irrelevancy and we persist in endeavouring to carve out place for him in history, where he does not belong. I will not begrudge the man a spot in Moscow with all the other communists, but not in our story.
Last, why should anyone seek an official third term, when it is the reality on the ground here in Guyana? Forget about the constitution (does it exist for these folks?); the machinery, the people, and the modus vivendi is what we have for a de facto third term; except, nobody talks openly about such. Observing all of this, there are only questions left: Where does it all end? Is there any probability of a return to sanity?
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lalll
