Dear Editor,
I reserve public conclusions, condemnation or judgment. Still, I share the texture and direction of my private thinking.
If that transcript is an accurate representation of the conversation, as it is alleged to have occurred, it is damning in the first place. Then it is doubly damning in the second, if one can get past the revulsion and nausea. I stopped reading before midpoint. Long before midway, as I had had enough.
Now I recognize the PPP government’s near instantaneous reaction of support. Not surprising, totally expected, par for the course in the best traditions of One for All and All for One.
But what if the alleged offending party was any other ordinary citizen? It is highly likely that thunder and lightning would have been unleashed in uncontrolled paroxysms of delight and pulverizing vindictiveness. Full court press, no holds barred, inclusive of low blows. Got ya! But in this case, circle the wagons first, damage control second, protect third, fourth and forever. This is currently the posture, with unholy haste and equally dismissive regard for any existing fidelity of the facts. Remember: private thoughts shared.
But what of others? What are they reading and thinking and concluding? What about the Guyana Bar Association? What about the women’s groups? Where is that chimerical creature called civil society? Most importantly, where is the political opposition? There must be canons of ethics somewhere; there must be utter repugnance at being close to and working with anyone (repeat anyone) whose cast of character and behaviour approaches this reprehensible state to have deliberated, then actually delivered such a diabolical diatribe. Or manufactured one.
If this true, then the offender must go, whether the caller or the publisher. This episode must be examined coldly and dispassionately for there are present considerable elements of mental stalking, potential sexual predation, a hostile environment, menacing, menacing with intent to use firearms, threat to public safety, specific threats to the peace, and possibly more. Then there must be unequivocal pronouncements as to authenticity or hoax. It must be so either way. And then what? It must not be another lost day, another sick story, and only new devils. Not this one, not this time.
Like I said at the beginning, public judgment is reserved.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
