Dear Editor,
I read about a possible third term presence and revulsion rises. It is a measure of my acute discomfort and the intensity of my distaste that I cannot even bring myself to pen a name. But make no mistake: a third term is what is contemplated, and nothing less. Mum is not dumb.
Guyanese can easily and quickly dismiss such current stances and covers as ‘guarded’ and mum, and similar such transparent evasions, as part of the political clowning. Guarded and mum shatter on the shoals of circumstances; the circumstances were last December, a secret ballot, and that giveaway election result. Therein resides the façade of a charade wrapped in a masquerade pretending to be an upgrade.
Through that fateful election, the opposition signalled a number of irrefutable things to the Guyanese electorate, and particularly its own. Among many other things, it was that the party is interested in and dedicated to: 1) a yearning for financial secrecy, like old times; 2) a return to the kind of commerce of old times; 3) a reversing of law enforcement gains and crime resolution progress, like old times; 4) the repositioning of suspect men and women at sensitive and critical junctures, to perpetuate state maladministration and malfeasance, like old times; and 5) a resurrecting of the sick thrills associated with abusing and vilifying citizens, and envenoming routine public discourse, like old times. There are other areas, but these ought to suffice.
Going back to that last decisive December, there was another one in the running, admittedly a dark horse of a doctor, and who was made to look like a horse doctor searching for his political oats. He was neatly fixed in second place. Clearly, premeditation, predetermination, and prearrangement were all at work for the in-house coronation of the esteemed and wondrous one to lead the charge come 2020. There is perfection in the visions associated with those digits. A roost of unreconstructed Stalinists cast their lots in favour of megalomania. This is the progressive nature of a political party disconnected from the people and reality, too.
I see nothing guarded or mum about such movement and self-serving, limited visions. It reiterates the party’s dedication to the cultish and selfish and boorish. In true communist fashion, the robotic unveiled the moronic. And that is where matters stand, all denials notwithstanding, and what dances around shoeless on coals.
The barbarisms once unleashed upon obedient society are anticipated in some quarters to return with a vengeance; except that some new freedoms, and old habits, have rekindled once chilled, once lethargic spirits.
For these and other reasons best left to the imagination (it should be an expansive imagination), I dismiss claims and conjecture about one-term and the like, as premature and wishful. Though the government of today has made mistakes, some serious, it will find a way to overcome. They have the marbles and the marble players.
It is why I foresee a titanic clash in the making between 1-term and 3rd-term. From today, the odds are on the former rising and the latter falling in 2020. So those who seek shelter under the colander of being guarded are welcome to do so and be so. On the other hand, I am out in the open and that can be labelled 20/20.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
