Dear Editor,
Guyanese have become very good and very crafty with the use of words and terms that resonate. Inclusive governance, social cohesion, national unity, and meritocracy are a few offerings that linger. They ring and comfort the spirit for a passing, soon forgotten, moment. In the lost decades of ethereal opportunities, and vacillating disingenuous movers and shakers, the drive has never been present to proceed beyond rhetoric into the hostile corridor of ideas, the convulsive power of thinking and visions. Good governance it is called.
The words keep coming like a crooked gambler in the vicinity of a tampered pack, and a pack of jokers for companions. The urge is irresistible. Listen: transparency, accountability, democracy. When will there be some learning? Some smidgen of political wisdom? From analyst to fatalist to activist to columnist to vocalist, the buzzwords flow in a ceaseless torrent.
Everybody utters them; nobody lives them. If words were runs, then Guyana by itself could record repeat triumphs at the World Cup; on the other hand, given the prodigious amounts of runs delivered, there is danger of the sewerage system being overwhelmed.
Due to a lack of traction, the code words, buzzwords, and passwords are bereft of the sheen of originality, of authenticity, and of possibility. There is railing and condemning on one side, countered by dissembling and evading on the other. Nothing occurs.
The sequence is haphazard, but almost a year later, pay increase, Baishanlin, the Chinese connection, fragile appointments, questionable retentions, and suspect associations all leave lasting acid on the palate.
Painstaking documenting of actions undertaken reflect well on attitudes towards, and respect for, good governance.
This government has the unprecedented opportunity to set the bar high for its peoples and practices. Sure, it is a costly sacrifice, but such paves the way for the creation of a new paradigm. It could be said that standards were set, a price paid; then dare anyone to challenge.
It is my thinking that, when all is considered, good governance is not truly desired in this society; it is too cheap, too unrewarding.
There would be nothing left to offer the faithful longsuffering foot soldiers and marshals. How can social cohesion solidify on a national scale when pregnant whispers heave with criticisms about replacements in this or that office? Additionally, there can be no meaningful talk of inclusion on a broad-based level when the economic pie, the career ladder is reduced to a few shabby unwanted crumbs. And as for this phantom about meritocracy, the burgeoning pantheon of the clueless, thoughtless, and visionless return to resume a new lease on a revitalized bureaucratic and political life. Now there is a meritocracy for you, as best represented by the expectations and entanglements of party warp.
It is why men and women on both sides of the chasm prefer to wait for decades for their own time and term. It is a turn, indeed, for the party apparatuses, and not anything bearing the vaguest resemblance to governance. Call it cabal, call it paramountcy, or call it return to paramountcy. The words continue to inundate.
Now the day is new, but it has aged considerably with the rush of events and the inexorable sweep of time. Like a nocturnal escort exposed to the light of day, the rough mascara edges show, sight threatened. Such is the chronic fooling of selves that lowers to the level of forlorn jongleurs in the eyes of contemporaries and the wider world.
I recall those immortal words of Mark Antony, “I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.” Today bury fulminations, machinations, and expectations. Left is a short supply of hope, and still lesser trust. Only faith reigns supreme. From every appearance, there is this now characteristic richness of words, but a paucity of intention, and the presence of fleecy will only.
More words, anyone? For sure, they will keep coming. Endlessly. Therefore, I say it is opportune to proceed beyond daily dousing the fires of personal errors in judgment and management, and examine the preparation, structure, and vision for believable government, performing government. Where is it?
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
