June 6, 2022
Dear Editor,
SN’s editorial titled “Contention” of June 5th is a good reference point from which to share some positions on a few crucial issues. My emphasis is mostly on the acting situations in our top two judicial offices; it is also lasered on the hardening stances of the President and Leader of the Opposition on that and on other issues also of national import.
I look at the plight, embarrassment, and sickening state of where our leading politicians are on the Chancellor’s and Chief Justice’s appointments and there is cringing: we will never get anything of significance executed like this. Never! If this can and continues to occur with the two sensitive posts named, then lesser matters can be swiftly discarded as being dealt with similarly, meaning, going nowhere. That is, unless there is unilateral action, which will suffice for now, but has no long-term utility for political relationships, and national tranquility. Frankly, I don’t see how this can hold, for then, given what is now the norm, consultations are dead in the water, as in leading to dead ends only, then there might as well not be any such dialogue, for all they are worth. They are shams.
Editor, I go further and assert that it is as if there is no legitimate government and no respected political Opposition, from the perspective of their rocklike tribal and racial fortresses. That is, beside their nuisance and scapegoat features, and vilification horror value, to the members of the opposing camps, they are nothing else. It is always good to have a bogeyman and effigy, a needed caricature around, which both government and opposition fit to a tee in the eyes of the people on the other side of the divide. Also, the SN editorial spoke of the need to “grow” by both government and the Opposition Leader. The wish was that government would “grow out of its habit of trying to control everything” and the Opposition Leader would “grow into his role.” In both instances, the task is uphill as well as slippery.
Total control and PPP Governments are inseparable. In vision. In practice. In result. I don’t see any stepping back from that total control mindset, from the fear of what that could mean, where it could lead. Thus, the door to any such movement, however minimal, remains securely fastened, as in soldered and sealed. Relative to the Opposition Leader, and his need to grow to the point where “he spoke less and reflected on issues and tactics more” this also is asking for a lot from him. As I have measured the man, this is pressing for what does not come naturally or easily. Moreover, it is indicative of a man and leader increasingly responding to the calling of his mandate (ascendancy) and pressures (expectations) that he rise to be the man of the moment, and in the most muscular manner. Looking at this from all perches – it could be top-down or bottom up or sideways-the planks for what no one wants to contemplate or talked about are being laid one by one.
It is a fateful condition, which at some time or the other is going to lead to that point with the proverbial straw and the porcupine’s back. Something is going to give, in that the mutual phony civility and cellophane tolerance that exist will falls apart.
Or the rifts that accumulate and expand will rupture. Currently, the so-called consultations, a farce dressed up in holiday finery, are over appointments and agendas and availability, and the related torturous media exchanges, which if they were not so serious would be the height of hilarity. It is only a matter of time before people lose patience and the gloves come off, with an end to what now amounts to nothing but political and leadership roadshows, sideshows, and verbal fashion shows. When there is no middle, the uncontrolled takes over. I think that the leadership exercises that we now have occurring in public mask greater internal and structural grievances, and could spell what is repeatedly warned against, but not listened to by anyone or any side. It is that this society is in a bad place, as was confirmed by the pre- and post no confidence motion, and the entire elections season. We could be in more trouble than we know.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall