Dear Editor,
President David Granger has come in for his share of appraisal and guarded comments. Some of the comments are on the money and earnestly examining; others are slightly more pointed.
It is said that he is not really known; that he is distant, and aloof; even a stranger still to the populace. There is some truth there. Also, that he can be dilatory and temporizes from time to time on heavy-duty matters. I hear that too for the record stands. Still, I see the man differently.
I see him as deliberate, possessing an economy of expression, and pondering; pondering quietly, slowly, deeply. I would go so far as to say that I believe that the President engages in continual mental sword-fencing with himself; thinking, probing for an opening and breakthrough beyond that which roils and debilitates this society. I think he cares. He is not a Trump all thunder and brimstone; instead the President brings another name to mind, a good and great one.
Lincoln’s peers were aghast and infuriated by what was perceived as his plodding, indecisive nature and ways. He was neither loud nor inflammatory nor vulgar. It is the way that presidents should be. But in Guyana, this makes a leader even more the subject of ongoing national curiosity, of palpable uncertainty. The President attracts this through his own cool aura of reserve and mystery. Sometimes, he is a little too cool, too unmoved. All of this is interpreted by me as someone determined to travel the high road in search of the high ground, but while maintaining a low profile. Many say that it is a profile that is too subdued, ponderous, heavy, and it is all too cerebral, and lacking in histrionics and flair. I have no problem on these aspects.
Arguably, and for the first time, Guyana has a thinking president. Guyanese have a problem with too much of that, and this growing enigma resident in the chief magistrate of the republic. It keeps them guessing, if leads to them being wrong-footed and exasperated. They like black and white; grey makes them see red. There is more.
I think the President’s demeanour and comportment are one of style, a low-key, almost invisible style, supported by substance. The man can be dull, predictably dull, but he is deep, and profoundly so. Here is someone who has an unflappable sense of self, and a sense of history and its movement. I would hope that he has mapped the direction and path of that movement, and how he desires to influence it; for that will be the test, and the final arbiter of his place and contribution to what unfolds here in due course.
Moreover, somewhere in the riddle of who and what is David Granger, I detect a thinking man, who forces Guyanese to think, and to think differently and ahead; except that those challenged are either too disinclined or too poorly constructed to do so thoroughly and consistently; to do so in revolutionary terms and scope. I detect that the Granger watchers are too occupied with the peripheral and superficial and optical; it is what they observe and leaves them hanging, if not unfulfilled. Much more is called for, such as studying the man, the record, the bearing, and the likely thought processes. Where he is, where he wants to go, and how he envisions himself in the annals of the Guyana Story.
Clearly, he walks a tight line. There has to be disciplined balletic arcs, rather than a rock star’s swish and swirl. Too many miss the hard inflexible edge to him that rests below the bland, disciplined exterior. Careful! There is steel there.
In all of this I am less concerned about the gloss (or lack of) of the outer public man. There is great interest, though, as to whether the character and convictions of a genuine, caring, farseeing leader are present in the inside; time will tell soon enough.
And whether there is the discernment that unprecedented groundbreaking political moments occur only once in a lifetime, and that there is in Guyana, right now, faint stirrings of such a moment.
So, amidst the clash and clamour, I watch and listen and look for those elemental things that can carry forward, upward, and beyond. I hope to learn, and in the most positive way possible.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
