October 29, 2016  Source

Dear Editor,

Many times I am appalled at the calibre of political leadership exhibited in this society.  It is an exhibition.  There is little or no regard for truth, accuracy, sensitivity, the appearance of things, and the sure-to-follow risible disgust.  The following examples emphasize leaders’ lack of adherence to the sound and solid, or to good sense for that matter.

Cabinet meetings at army headquarters?  Did some people sample intercepted and seized product bound for the US?  Surely, this is a jest; or thoughtlessness has taken up full-time residence in caveman territory; or there is total contempt (shades of the old) for any reactions to such a move.

I am all for utilization of military men in civil tasks and responsibilities.  In and of itself that is resisted and condemned in some circles.  Now holding cabinet meetings at Camp Ayanganna cannot be, will not be, well received.  This much is obvious and has to be known.  Such a thought, decision and reality immediately and inevitably assumes sinister garments.  With a solider president, a solider(s) presence in the cabinet, soldiers as key advisers, and soldiers appointed to visible public service posts, this temporary Camp Ayanganna residency is one army bridge too far.  Sure, it must be recognized that they are all former military men, with due emphasis on former.  But who is listening and parsing?  Who is neutral and objective and understanding of what can only be termed in the kindest manner as imbecilic?  There is no upside.  Confidentiality, security, invisibility, and every other needed facility can be easily located elsewhere.  Why attract the irresistible magnet of excoriation and ominous motives, of sure-to-be believed precursory steps for down the road with this gathering of eagles?  Or should that be turtles?

To restate the obvious, Guyana is not America, where military service (especially combat engagements) is embraced as a powerful political asset; here, rightly or wrongly, there are embedded misgivings, if not grave apprehensions about local soldiering.  And this is not from the traditional quarters only.  So, why add fuel to the embers?  Dwight Eisenhower coined that very accurate term: military-industrial complex for its mammoth presence and influence in America; great care ought to be exercised to prevent the coining of a parallel term here, as in the military-political complex.  For some, this already exists; today it is given new meaning in the wood of Ayanganna by those who can only be described as wooden.

Then, there is the Leader of the Opposition trumpeting in full-throated crescendo that crime has never been this bad in this country.  Time makes some lose their hair; it also makes others lose their minds, or whatever vestiges of one that they might have had.  I recall Guyana being a virtual killing field in the not-too-distant past.  It was not during Burnham’s time.  How quickly we forget, or pretend to.  Phantoms, hitmen, contract killings, executions, assassinations, massacres (Lusignan and Lindo Creek), and mainly unsolved, all besmirched the local law-enforcement lexicon.  There were claims of national security too.  The leader should check with the former ambassador; perhaps there is no need to, as the roots of that expression have origins closer to home.

More damning are some still developing circumstances, and a solidifying fact: more major crimes have been solved in the last year than during the entire tenure of the man once at the helm.  Now what does this say of a masquerading drummer at extreme decibels in October?  I would say out of place, out of body and out of mind too.

I return to the less unsound (not by much) and the government.  This administration can be inconsistent.  At times, it displays a boldness immersed in recklessness (untimely 50% pay hike), only to lose its marbles re public servants and their pay.  I get the powerful impression that the government desires to do more, but the limit of its arithmetic exposure is counting to ten.  Anything beyond that calls for a brain graft, and several yards of intestinal canvas.  Further, it is daring enough to hire and fire people under sometimes questionable circumstances, but is fearful enough not to test believed mined terrain.  Think education; think new people; and think new ways.  It is simply content to leave old dogs alone; they can be vicious.  They can also sneak up undetected and bite sensitive parts.

Last, and on a positive note, I read that Mr Godfrey Statia, head of the GRA, has made his standards and expectations very clear to the staff.  I think he has what it takes to cage and defang that monster that drains the blood.  After all, he comes from Central High and not Queens.  Despite the lush pedigree of the children of the latter, take a moment and examine the tattered history and devastation at their hands inflicted upon this nation.  Mr Statia will stand up and stand out; he can stand for some good things.  Perhaps, this government can learn, but only if it humbles itself.

Yours faithfully,

GHK Lall