Dear Editor,
There was that rare display of falling on sword by the Clerk of the National Assembly. I commend him. There is a problem: it is neither his sword nor scabbard nor wound. That grievous lapse, that now uncontrolled and unpardonable failure rests with the Chief Whip. That is what they are there for, aren’t they? Issues and developments and postures must be filtered through that screen of the eye and mind. That is, unless there was sanction for what did unfold; and now only for the implications of what was believed to be routine spiraling into anything but.
On the negative side, I read of vacillating and dissembling (all intended to be concealing) about qualifications. Of those I care not, though I should. Character and fitness for office are what matters to me. And if there is perceived maximum security (personal) in holding on to the perceived untenable and the largely unsatisfactory, then there is further personal settlement, in quarters distant from mine, as to unworthiness. Thoroughly so. It may take the reversal of old fashioned and patient country house mannerisms and qualities to reject a horse that pretends to be a clean and pedigreed thoroughbred; the latter did cross the line on the way to the winner’s circle. It was premature and did not stand. I trust that the reference to the just concluded Kentucky Derby does not elude, whether horseracing fan or not. Like the jockey and bettors and believers, there could be holding of head in hands. Guyanese who care about their political and social environments and future are doing so, almost uninterruptedly it now seems.
For their part, Guyanese politicians are going to have to do more that is honest and timely, and that stand the tests of character, of deed, of scrutiny, and of a public that is tired and disgusted and scornful. I am. This is not 1970. It is not 2000. It is 2019. There is only one kind of truth: the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Now which one of the local icons-established or aspiring-is ready to commit to that standard?
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
