Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 08, 2021 Letters
Dear Editor,
I read recently of a move to name the Hon. Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr. Lenox Shuman to head the Public Accounts Committee. I think that that is a step in the wrong direction, and for the following reasons, which I believe speak well for themselves.
Before proceeding further, I wish to make clear that I have never met citizen Shuman, never spoke to him, know nothing of him, other than the public disclosures surrounding this intrepid Guyanese when he stepped, with much fanfare, into the toxic mix of Guyanese politics. It goes without saying that those public revelations concerning this believed patriotic Guyanese now stand settled in cement. Thus, what I articulate, maybe a tad strenuously about his name being bubbled about as PAC chief, is nothing personal not political; it is simply what is best for this dark and destitute society.
Mr. Shuman is not a fit and proper person for consideration to be at the helm of a parliamentary PAC. No, sir! No, ma am! No! No! No! It is substituting one curved question mark for another. I say this because, when Mr. Shuman was presented with the opportunity, more than one opportunity, to be open and candid and clean on where his dual citizenship situation stood, he vacillated, which is putting it rather gently. He was silent for long stretches; then he was a bit artful in his dodgeries; and what should have been an open and shut, routine affair, transformed into something that was less than honourable, a shade on the slick side. To come down real hard on Mr. Shuman on this, a very slick side that possessed elements of calculated timing, to determine which way the wind was going to blow in parliament on that same dual citizenship issue, and then he hesitated for what appeared to me to be ages. In so doing, Mr. Shuman, contestant and candidate Shuman did not do himself any favours, did not earn any points for being about the principled.
It is along the lines of that same score that I think that Mr. Shuman is an unfit and improper person to be among those floating to the top of the decision-making for helmsman of any PAC. Because when he was bold enough to plunge into Guyanas perverse politics, this once-believed earnest Guyanese made what I construed to be an unbreakable oath that he and his group would not walk in the footsteps of similar predecessor political parties and join the ranks of either the PPP or the PNC (or whatever alphabetical costume it wears today). To repeat for emphasis and the appreciation of all Guyanese: Mr. Shuman essentially swore that that despised political Rubicon would not be crossed. And then he did, and now he celebrates; and now he is celebrated (or to be) with another piece of silver through likely elevation to head the parliamentary PAC. In this country, politicians veteran and those believed glowing in the complexions of promise and patriotism are thus honoured for their betrayals. It is why I say no; not this sterling citizen; not where review of the monies of this countrys taxpayers are concerned. Mr. Shuman has benefited from too many undeserved blessings; he owes. And since he owes those who have been good to him, the purest cannot be expected of him. Examine him, and examine them, and this is where the consideration terminates.
Editor, if it is felt that I am being too harsh, then I humbly present this. If our word, our honor, our decency and dignity has no meaning, no value, then I submit that we are nothing. We represent nothing, we stand for nothing, and when all is sifted and studied, we are nothing. It is what separates us from lowly sneaky reptiles. Mr. Shuman failed those few who trusted him to be different; he wasnt, and he has not been. Not he waits to collect. Again.
This cannot be the way that we talk of moral leadership in this country, when the embattled man, former minister Patterson, who filled that spot before him was blatantly negligent and irresponsible, even disappointingly deceptive, in what and how he himself collected. Almost similar to Mr. Shuman, I barely know Mr. Patterson, other than for a less than 30 second meeting and greeting. But today, I know of him in ways that bring recoiling; and regrettably, it is the same standard to which I hold brother Shuman, and the same desultory place that I arrive. No! No more of these kinds of unfit and improper leaders. Let us start somewhere. Let us start today.
Yours truly,
GHK Lall
Please share this to every Guyanese including your house cats.
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