Latest update October 11th, 2024 11:23 AM
Mar 27, 2022 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column
Encouraging Events, Disturbing Developments…
By GHK Lall
Kaieteur News – Today, I take the bad and make the good, which is highlighting the positive. I could beatdown government, but that only encourages its leaders to beat-up other weaker Guyanese. So, I take the bright side, and use the disturbing to find the encouraging.
More Guyanese are speaking. A senior man postured that the Private Sector Commission is ‘blindly loyal’ politically, which I interpret to be the PPP. As business strategy it is unsurpassed, with the VP deciding who get and who doesn’t. Blindly loyal help is priceless, translates to rich recognition, richer rewards. Business is about those – continuity and profitability. There is no place for conscience or questioning, ‘blindly loyal’ it is, which means money, and money is God and family in Guyana. I am not tempted to be so, because of a different constitution, which is why people like me struggle, but the blindly loyal Private Sector prosper.
I am encouraged to learn (again) that the Police has a traffic ticketing system. Still, what ranks do on the roadways is discouraging, with ‘go to the station’, which is crude shakedown, chapter one. Guyanese are being educated on what holds (tickets for minor violations), what they should register objection to (hand a ticket here), but to be ready for stage two of the traffic song and dance, which continues at the Police Station. It is a cancerous environment practice: sit there and stew and some sense will come, as in settle and go about business. Just police business as usual. The arithmetic is straightforward. Waiting is costly, and the specter of a charge and days wasted in Court is more costly, with time lost. Gratuities are welcomed/expected/demanded, nothing personal, simply cultural. I am encouraged to hear again about traffic tickets, and that the Hon. Attorney General had cause to speak of costly harassment of road users. Today, I spend no time concluding that friend or family whispered in his ear, which lit a sudden fire under Mr. Law and Order. Instead, I emphasise the existence of traffic tickets for minor offences, and denting corrupt exercises. Guyanese should demand a ticket. Whether officers could write is not the public’s business.
Continuing with the encouraging from the Guyana Police Force (GPF), it is good to read that a team of cops turned down big money and refused to deal with that loaded Health Ministry employee. That they did so repeatedly, and in the face of more money dangled inspires me to think that there are principled people in the GPF. I salute them. It should be noted that the psychic disturbance of a public servant being in possession of millions and lethal munitions is ignored, while I am delighted that poor police officers could refuse such rich enticements. I wonder if that is how tender board awards are overseen. Don’t look at me, check with the ‘blindly loyal’ private sector. Remember, this is the politics of business, which has no clean or straight people inside.
Then, it encouraged to read that a former regional executive (a PNC one) is ‘wanted’ for clarity relating to ‘financial irregularities. There is so much irregularity at every level in this country that nothing is regular anymore, going from top to bottom. Though disturbing, it is encouraging that no one is above scrutiny or inquiry. Of course, that is hypothetically speaking. Incidentally, I would like to see some people jailed, stripped of assets, and publicly whipped for these so-called irregularities. I have a huge number of candidates, suspects really, in case anyone is interested. I would start with that house by Stabroek that sometimes operates in the elections center on the East Coast.
Last, the Americans say that we have a problem, two of them: crime and COVID-19. Is dem seh dah, nah me. Disturbing, I’d say. The Government responded by swiftly rushing the GPF to Stabroek to apply a temporary poultice. Now I wait to hear how Minister Frankie Anthony will react to the Yankees (CDC) contending that Guyana is a high-risk COVID-19 country. I hope he doesn’t give them the high salute favoured by Italians, which would both encourage and disturb endlessly.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
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