Dear Editor,
I observe that the opposition has seen the light after some two decades of slackness and dullness. Finally, it has replaced its printed media signature with not another aged uninspiring presence; but an unusual, if not unholy troika. Their duty is to preach the party’s apocryphal gospels to the Guyanese multitude via the press, and according to a former president, a former prime minister, and a former attorney general. The former prime author and spokesman, the Interior Secretary, (an insult to secretaries all over) appears to have been banished to the boondocks; it should be a permanent.
Now the replacements represent a step up, and time will reveal whether such a step is a pedestrian one, or a giant leap forward. Please think Neil Armstrong, and not Mao Zedong. The trio starts with known handicaps, as I never read beyond the caption, the canned and predictable utterances of the ex-commander. Even Pravda in its most dogmatic days was preferable and found more palatable. Put differently and bluntly, the pretender-in-chief is not mentally moving; now that could be interpreted a couple of ways, neither of which is kind or favourable.
Then there is the other fellow, the second musketeer, who has appointed himself the new propaganda general. This is not as innocent as it seems, as there is the recognition of someone positioning himself for a run in December against the climatologist, and actor costumed in political blackface. For the forgetful, refer to Florida and the Eric Williams gathering: “We black people….” In fairness to the dethroned denizen lately of Carmichael Street, it must be said that no one and nothing can be more detrimental to the welfare of this society than the global warming guru hopscotching about in search of an identity and a habitat, a protected one.
Wise onlookers might look at these two opposition media arrivals and liken this to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (the fourth one is the same one that rides a pale horse and gallops about like a ghost rider in the sky). They might think this is a sophisticated media blitz and media strategy. All I see are the angles of a clever hustle. After all, oil money beckons, along with those currencies forced into premature and extended hibernation in this austere winter of desolate discontent.
At this point, the founder’s words should be remembered: “don’t worry, be happy.” These fellows are definitely unhappy, and to be on the outside looking in does not sit well: it is the pits. There is no cash flow there. Nonetheless, I confess to an appreciation for the third arm of the triumvirate, the former prime minister, and his recent public call for Afro-Guyanese to take the plunge and bond with his people. Of course, it makes perfect sense to saddle Uncle Sam with this delicate mission, while armed with only a basket that has no bottom to lure unsuspecting and disgruntled fish. The former (unsuspecting) is non-existent, while the latter variety (disgruntled) multiplies. I like this version of social cohesion, PPP style.
Still, I would have thought that the erstwhile former PM is graced with the hindsight that comes from those immortal and relevant words of Professor Cornel West, who I now paraphrase. There are middle dogs, even a few top dogs, but at the end of the day, they discovered the hard way that they are all underdogs and unwanted ones too. I remind the amnesiacs that Professor West was from Harvard, and not Patrice Lumumba. He was addressing the plight of Jews in America; I venture that his thinking applied to Guyanese ethnics on the losing side of electoral counts and governance swaps.
Editor, I would be guilty of acute untruth if I say that I welcome the contributions of these three Guyanese media spinners. The nation would be better served if they were to remain in private solitude, along with the profound silence, and the penance that are part of the Siberia in which they languish.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
