Dear Editor,
I have no choice but to break, momentarily, my Lenten distancing from the public space of Guyana when the ugly and obscene occur. In this instance, it involves the Civil Society Groups that came out in protest recently. Though I have come to respect the efforts of groups like TIGI and Article 13, today I focus on the Ursuline Sisters of Guyana, and this back and forth going on with their decision and action in the local environment.
When no less a person than the Head of State and his people at the DPI, as reported, could find the time, use taxpayers’ money, and have the energy to work at manipulating and massaging what took place and involved the Ursuline Sisters, then it is a reflection of how sensitive and rigid this PPP/C Government and its leaders are to constructive criticism, regardless of the source. Who can be more selective than the President, when he forgets the decades of spirited and concentrated involvement that led to his group being where it is today? Perhaps, he has forgotten, due to his frail years, the endeavours of some of those same Sisters and their brothers back in the 1980s that led to the return from the wilderness and recall to where it is today. In fact, I remind him that one of their brothers, a priest no less, was murdered in that struggle; and I remind him that the whispers and fingers pointed are aimed at people known to him, and in his bosom.
Editor, in my seven years plus of volunteer contributions in the education field, I have come to know well these Sisters; they are the heights of dedication and truth, of care and compassion. This is even more impressive considering their less than perfect flesh, the state of man himself. I have some more: when an octogenarian has to set the record straight about what happened, and where matters truly stand, then how shabby and sullied the words and postures of the President become? I have known this woman, this Sister, for almost a decade, and she has never said a hard word about the politics and practices of anyone in that time to me. I would laud the President when he sees fit to practice that kind of straight thinking and straight talk.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
