Dear Editor,
As I listen to all the hubbub over the Hon. Speaker of the National Assembly, I find myself drawn into taking this peculiar defensive position: let us all cut the Speaker some slack. I must warn, though, that there is a downside to that, as that adage may click smartly into place -give a man an inch, and he grabs a whole mile. So there!
Anyhow, the Speaker should be excused, since he is new to the job, this weighty responsibility to the sensitive tasks of presiding over the august house of the people. It certainly was to his disadvantage that he is clueless on most things, except what pleases you know who? Those people that put him there, so he has to measure up, and in trumps. Now there is a dirty word for all the political purists and moralists. Like I said, the man is new, and most of us have been in that position, which prompts us to try to prove that we are the best thing since Steve Jobs (slice bread lost out). So what if the big man got carried away with the importance of the job, or that it went to his head? He who wants to cast the first stone, go ahead. Make my day.
Editor, I am excusing the Speaker for the slight error in misinterpretation. He failed to appreciate that the holder of that office has to be as clean as a PPP/C awarded contract. It should be noticed that I left out ‘government’ which I assure one and all was not a mistake. What the party wants, it gets the government to do. The Speaker erred in the small area of not seeing the office as mediator (of what is pornography and bad behaviour among rambunctious boys and girls) and arbitrator (of time for that creature called an opposition -yes, space has to be made for it, too), but as one of executioner. Just ask the Shadow Minister of Oil and Gas. What is a little difference of opinion among friends, come on?
But not so fast, for if the Speaker thinks I am going to let him off the hook, I refer him to that gone vagabond, Ray Charles, ‘You don’t know me.’ Yessir, you can say that again. There is one area where the Speaker had fallen down rather consistently, and conveniently so, which makes matters even more embarrassing. I take great pains in letting him know (humbly, of course) that Speaker of the National Assembly means that the incumbent must speak from both sides of his mouth. He can’t speak from the PP/PC side of his mouth alone, for that would lead to those same charges levelled against him. My suggestion to him is to tell the people that he is sorry, that it would not happen again, and let’s all kiss and be friends.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall