Latest update April 30th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 12, 2022 Letters
Dear Editor,
I observe the relationship between the PPP Government and the PNC Opposition. To say kindly, it is unhealthy; frankly, it is ugly. The most public evidence is the relationship between the President and the Leader of the Opposition. There is no relationship. It is raw and ruff. It is aggressive and abrasive. Too much tenseness, much muted hostility. There are other underpinnings too well known to be repeated today. What’s the point?
There is one point, though, that I make. As the temperature of leaders go, so does that of their supporters. That could be taken to the bank. I would like to say that it is the worst thing for us, but nobody is listening. Also, that we play into the hands of our enemies, and already I hear the reaction: so what?
Undoubtedly, we have all these rich things, yet we have nothing, save our reciprocal rage. To that I add, the hatreds that spring so reflexively, so fluently, from deep inside. It is the one constant about us, that which we are really, incomparably good at, very proud. From long practice, we discovered that we like it. Even though this drags us deeper down, we still rush forward raucously, energetically. This is at bottom, higher up, and then right at the top. It is that same top that I place under the microscope and, truth be told, it discomforts.
Look at the President closely where the Opposition is concerned, and he pretends supreme confidence, essays a superficial swagger that fools none. The guts are there, but not the fortitude, which does not bode well. His shaded scorn for the Opposition due to foreign backing is misplaced, which I tell him (respectfully, of course). I remind him of Burnham who also had that meddling foreign element (Cheddi Jagan’s conclusion, not mine) and look at his lot. No foreign friends. Not enough locals backing. I humbly suggest that His Excellency appreciate that the only neighbour that counts right now is right here. That would be the Opposition, the sons of this soil and, no matter how disowned, brothers under the sun (and under the skin) despite the mutual snarls.
To the Opposition Leader, my counsel is engage and not entertain any foolishness from any party, be they local or foreign. This leader must refrain from the feature that come so easily to be a man of the street, someone not to be messed with. There is that edginess that conveys a Mike Tyson – like menace, which has its place and time. Reach out and touch in good faith and with good visions. Bring that to the table first. After that, and only if it fails, there could be grounds to assert that there was sincere trying, despite the awareness that the climate and circumstances do not contribute to clean and conscientious, even calm, conversations. Thereafter, I think that the heated inevitability of Guyana that has been long delayed would take over.
I think that it is time that we stop fooling ourselves, either as leaders or as people. But first our leaders, both those in the PPP Government and PNC Opposition, must stop fooling themselves, and making fools of the people. We can fight each other, delight in it. While we fight, the foreigners fetch. Their envoys will make some polite clearing of the throat, while counting the barrels that leave these shores, as well as the ounces, board measurement, metric tons. Black and brown people can beat themselves blue, who cares.
Instead of fighting, or representing confrontation, I exhort President and Opposition Leader to see the slivers of light that I shed. My star is neither bright nor high, but a star it is nonetheless, however dim. Think of this. We have a people together and nothing can stop us from getting a bigger piece of our birthright. It is the last thing that the oil magnates desire to behold: a united polity. For then to be anti-oil company predations is neither to be anti-PPP nor anti-PNC. It is to be pro Guyana.
When the people are reconciled and harmonised, then the President doesn’t have to lift a finger to point at PNC deviators or naysayers. In the same vein, the Opposition Leader would not have a leg to stand on that speaks to PPP collaborators and PPP traitors, including constitutional ones, natural resource ones, or self-enriching ones. The undivided people (maybe for one moment, for this one objective) duly marshalled and mobilised can stand in streets, on rooftops, at ports, operational spaces, and every other point of pressure, and shout with one voice.
I think I hear a chorus saying one thing over and over: what do we want? We want oil democracy. Oil justice. Oil prosperity. To President and Opposition Leader, I say be true tribunes for the people. It starts, accelerates, and flourishes from joining hands, smoking pipes. Naturally, the oil people (ambassadors) would have a problem.
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
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