Dear Editor,
I note with interest SN’s editorial of July 4th on Dr. Marlon Cole, former head of the Government Analyst-Food and Drug Department (GA-FDD). After all the talking and all the writing, and swearing, this man’s fall from grace, being cast out into the wilderness, is one more example of how much, how well, integrity and incorruptibility fare in this country. The PPP Government and its leaders fill national libraries about how much they are against corruption, how enraged they are when it occurs, but when one of the few remaining Guyanese continued his longstanding position against wrongdoing Dr. Cole had to go.
If clean and conscientious public servants are such a bone in the throat, found so objectionable, and just for doing their duty, then this means that there is only one kind of public officer, one type of official companion, passes muster, fits the bill, according to the way that today’s government operates, how its leaders think. I don’t know Marlon Cole, other than what I come across in the news, but I remember something from the last year of the PNC Coalition of 2015 to which SN’s editorial speaks. I recall that the former GA-FDD director went after some noncompliant citizens, there was consternation about him rocking the boat at the wrong time, since sensitive votes were at stake, and how he ought to be more cognizant of the environment. He wasn’t. All that he was concerned was about the rules and regulations being followed. I trust that this is understood, despite the nuanced expression.
Obviously, his body of honest work continued without letup under this PPP regime, which made him into a marked man. Too many are owed, and they are powerful with reach to the right people at the top. People could be removed with a phone call is the way of Guyana today, with no letters needed such as H.E or V-P or M of this and that their failure-and their folly also-is to do the job entrusted to them in the right way, and for which there is only one solution -their heads rolling out the door and down the steps and out the yard. Goodbye!
There are only a few more like Dr. Marlon Cole left, and their days are numbered.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall