Dear Editor,
Finally, somebody got it right, and in the first go around. Applause for the Alliance For Change (AFC) is due, and I give it. I find it refreshing that a group could hold elections and the aftermath is without a whimper of incident, not a whiff of controversy. It is so unlike the norm that rears its disgraceful head in this town, which now goes beyond our decayed national elections apparatus and mentalities, and has infiltrated polling stations involving sport, and other social occupations and spaces.
I think that what the AFC achieved, presented to us, is that a clean election is doable. I do not fool myself for a moment that what happened with this relatively small, but still consequential, group of citizens in a closeted space could be successfully amplified into broader local government and national government elections. Still, I think that a start could be made from what is an incomplete, possibly imperfect (maybe even unworkable) blueprint that may run into heavy headwinds in the challenges and crucibles of national elections where so much more is at stake. What I discern that the AFC was able to do began with a sound and credible system that encircled from sanctioned delegates to rules to operational points to decision points to issue resolution mechanism, and moving on, among other unmentioned steps and considerations. It involved the runup, the gathering, the process, the people, and what followed afterwards. It is that when certain points have been completed, then other elements, and only those, can come into play, until there is that endpoint where it is over. It is really over, notwithstanding disappointments, hidden frustrations, speculations of what should have been, or what was in place, but did not holdup, and so forth. It takes big people to start out with the underpinnings, and conditions that lead to such a point.
As I consider all this, I think that what the AFC did was next to the impossible, given the roiling contexts of Guyana, and I speak not only towards the resulting choices for leaders, but the composition of its leadership slate. In so doing, the party has set an example, showed others how to do so, the kind of innards demanded. This is the benchmark. I believe that this sets a standard for the PPP, the PNC, and the nation. Its elections also incorporated timing, acceptance, and closure. From then it must be moving on to the many big, urgent things that wait for addressing and resolving here. Now, the party and its leaders must start anew. Both must work diligently to make their presence felt. Be a game changer with all the foolishness and dark ruling criminalities raging in this land under the cover of law and secrecy. The group must reinvent itself and reposition itself before the Guyanese electorate, in which there is an increasing sense of disillusionment and disenchantment. There has to be an end to this groping around like a blind man feeling his way in the dark, while looking for his props. Since it succeeded in running a clean and satisfactory elections process, then the AFC could still rebound and go places.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
