Recent Parliamentary Behaviour in Guyana - The Worst Version of our people

Recent Parliamentary Behaviour in Guyana – The Worst Version of our people

Nov 28, 2017 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
The activities in Parliament of Guyana have engaged my attention since during the heyday of H.N Critchlow and the time when two of my pedagogues Messrs. AP Alleyne and R. Cheeks were involved in the deliberations of that austere forum.
I recently sought to compare the rumbustious behaviour of a section of the members in that somewhat hallowed Chamber on 1st November, 2017, and that with the atmosphere which obtained during the tenure of Sir Donald Jackson’s speakership. It was like cheese to chalk, in that body, known for its excellence in oratory.
The reason, Editor, for the recent display of descent into decadence in the Chamber – one that resembled a mixture of the most smelly trench mud with fresh green animal manure – is not lost on a decreased and aging citizenry who are aware of better times. Such displays are a direct result of the failure of statesmen to advocate the highest ideals of etiquette, social graces and decorum on the part of our people.
Editor, in the House of Commons during Members Question Day, or other, such vulgar behaviour would not have raised its ugly head in an attempt to interrupt Prime Minister May’s answers to Members questions – much less would such a display been seen during an address to Parliament by the Head of State, Her Majesty the Queen.
I keep reminding my close friends and offspring that there was a time in Guyana-when we had a functioning riding school. There were equestrians, resplendent in their riding habits, seen astride their groomed mounts on the verges of certain streets in Georgetown in early mornings and afternoons.
There was a time when a knighted Head of State in Guyana could have participated in a vocal duet and be received with acclaim at any prestigious concert hall – when members of the Diplomatic Corps stationed in Georgetown felt comfortable enough to participate in theatrical plays at a venue like the Kingston Theatre Guild.
When Margaret ‘Mata’ Johnson, the wife of an ordinary policeman stationed at No. 8 Village, West Coast Berbice, 60 miles from Georgetown, offered piano lessons to all shades of young people in the adjoining areas. Her wards included the offspring of an estate driver who sought exposure to the classics for his children, outside of the traditional rustic lifestyle present in the estate environment. These youths would eventually wend their way to Georgetown to be examined by musical examiners from the United Kingdom.
I doubt today if you could find anyone thus exposed from that area still residing in Guyana. They left for pastures which offered a better standard or quality of life – when there were reputable piano repair shops at the northwest corner of Regent and Camp Streets and in Durban Street, Wortmanville. Where can you find any such facility in today’s Guyana? How many Guyanese are there who have the letters LRSM behind their names?
An absence of such genteel activities in my book speaks volumes. An accumulation of perceived opulence by individuals does not to my mind, reflect elegance and good breeding.
I am to again allude to the speech made by Governor Matt Bevin of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in an address early this year to the House. He advocated that the people of Kentucky should be the best version of themselves so that Kentucky could be the best version of itself.
The recent exhibition in Parliament epitomized the worst version of the Guyanese people. My dear mother who was a stickler for propriety would have described such unbridled conduct therein as ‘lawlessness’ and the guilty as in need of being sanded with coarse sandpaper. Isn’t it any wonder that for years on end the endemic disorder continues unabated at the Stabroek Square and adjoining area – a stone’s throw from the renowned Parliament Building?
Finally, Editor, it is no surprise that 60 years of ministerial government in Guyana could have passed without some occasion with pomp and ceremony held to mark the occasion.
Aubrey Alexander
Deputy Director of Civil Aviation (Ret’d)

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