Dear Editor,
When hurtful words are used by ordinary citizens they are deplorable, when leaders deteriorate to the ugly and venomous, both word and act are despicable. Leaders should be examples, are held as heroic by their own, and when they stoop to the obscene, when the venomous is delivered, then new ground has been broken, new standards for vile imitation set. Bharrat Jagdeo stands accused, castigated, and condemned by his hard stumble.
To be clear, and to be fair, there is scant expectation of the etiquette of courtliness from the former president. The road in Guyana has been littered with the carnage of his reckless conduct. Whoever wants to substitute detritus or garbage for carnage is free to do so. But a former president does not allow himself to descend to the sewer to vent his anger, to articulate his frustrations, to exhibit his overweening arrogance. It may be of what is characteristic of him in this matter of unacceptable choice of vocabulary in describing Mrs. Catherine Hughes, but it can never be acceptable by any Guyanese, be they from PPP or PNC; or those having difficulty to get past ABC.
Not unrelated to this Cathy Hughes development, I have been gifted some speeches by Venezuelan President Maduro, where that good man has railed about what is wrong and bad in Guyana. In his diatribes, I have heard him deploy insult after insult at Guyana’s President Ali, with one instance sticking irremovably in my throat. Senor Maduro called President Ali “insolent.” My president is insulted and Jagdeo bit his lip. My country is taken to the cleaners, and could somebody locate Jagdeo for me, please? My fellow citizens and their loyalties (and my dignity) are reviled, and Jagdeo transformed into Martin King and Mohandas Gandhi in an instant. The reflexive instinct was to respond with the retaliatory in the public domain, and in Spanish.
Indeed, a few things were gleaned from those years of association with Puerto Ricans and Guatemalans and Ecuadoreans. I may not be of or for the PPP, but the words of President Maduro struck a sharp chord. I bring this up and point to that brother: there is Guyana’s enemy. There is the man and his company who want to wrestle from us the greatest part of our inheritance. Therefore, he should be Bharrat Jagdeo’s enemy and target for any verbal fusillades that he has in mind. Real men don’t attack women.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
