Dear Editor,
I refer to Mr Kowlasar Misir’s letter published in the Stabroek News of April 15, 2020 under the caption, `It was Mr Lowenfield, Mr Mingo and others from Gecom who birthed us this mess.’ He was responding to my letter SN (2020.04.14) in which I called for an apology from critics and letter writers who had viciously ridiculed Lowenfield and senior GECOM members on the proposed work plan.
Mr Misir vehemently objected to my position on the ground that it was the Chief Election Officer, Returning Officer (Region 4) and other GECOM staffers that got the nation into this mess. I see no sense in challenging his narrative since he has demonstrated in the present circumstances an inability to separate issues, even if a failure to do so deepened the “mess” he is expressing concern about.
Reading Misir’s letter, while he recognised the election crisis as a mess, he seems not to have comprehended the potential negative consequences to the nation. He is driven by emotion and has not come to grips with the seriousness of the situation. When that realization clicks in he will appreciate the wisdom of stepping back, despite one’s feelings, and separate issues: that is, the general from the particular. In doing so he might see the value of civility in our public discourse on this sensitive issue and refrain from propagandising on every measure GECOM takes to address the crisis.
In closing, I hope that Mr Kowlasar Misir and I will have a meeting of minds on this salient point: regardless of how we got into the “mess” the challenge is for us to get out with the least damage and pain.
Yours faithfully,
Tacuma Ogunseye
