Dear Editor,
Guyanese do not have to watch television, or follow the tweeting flurries, or go to the expense of an American Airlines flight to the U.S. to gain familiarity with political distortions and falsifications from the lips of foreign leaders. They have a ringside seat right here. All that has to be done is to listen or read about the lying liars and the lies they tell. This originates from very high places in a land brought lower daily.
Before proceeding, it is understood, even accepted (reluctantly), that cunning propaganda, wild exaggeration, and skillful disingenuousness form substantive parts of political discourse in the local political game. It has been-and can be-a dirty, sleazy game, which finds great traction and leverage when the sullen racial component is considered and added; there are no consequences. I do allow space for slippage, carelessness, and recklessness, alongside the provocative and mischievous. These are all part of the garbage-strewn road that is well travelled by garbage-laden political godfathers. As difficult as it can be, at times, to digest the crass motivations and sinister objectives behind these practices, these excesses from leading politicians, and a few in particular, have mutated into the retardation of political business as usual.
Having said this, and earmarking extensive contingencies for such weaknesses and developments, there are still those occasions (too frequent, for certainty) when one is staggered by the sheer insolence and utter absurdity of what is presented loudly, boldly, and shamelessly by such leaders. It is where, having climbed very far out on a precarious limb, there can be no turning back. There is no such interest or consideration, even when dangerous lines are crossed, when there is complete disregard for facts and circumstances, and when truth is savaged and willfully maimed.
In Guyana today, and for some time now, there are a few who rush heedlessly to such extents. Some live in the media; some elsewhere. And in the realm of politics, there are these surly captains, who know no restraining bounds; who I sense decided a long time ago that neither limits nor controls nor civilities apply where truth and accuracy are concerned. It is where melodramatic truculence blends seamlessly with megalomaniac histrionics. Whether race or cash or gold, it is always the same familiar now ugly story of political depravity in motion, where any disfigured means justify sordid ends. This is more than savvy contortionists taking liberties with truth; more than seasoned political ventriloquists speaking from both sides of their mouths. Rather, this is about serial falsifiers, indeed, the picture and reality are of sick troubled persons. They falsify numbers; falsify circumstances; falsify history; this is neither through deficiency of attention nor infidelity to accuracy, but an insistent insidious scorn for truth. It is where the malicious and capricious are not merely second nature, but inseparable from those leading characters without values or spiritual foundation and recommendation. I do hope that citizens can appreciate why I find so much to identify with in President David Granger, shortcomings duly considered.
Since extremely contrary behaviours and standards are the norm with other political overseers, I wonder how Guyana and Guyanese have sunk so far, deteriorated so terribly that there is neither flinching nor acute detestation at the presence, sight, and embodiment of all that is wrong here, and what can bring down and devastate And since the A and B and C people had-and still have-no use for such, then how and why should any sane wise citizen continue down a road that will only take to perdition. With people of this calibre operating as lawmakers and kingmakers, even considered leadership material, then this society is in a deeper hole and greater trouble than it can imagine.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
