OP:ED – Good to see openness to conversation

Mar 03, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – It was good to read of the encouraging developments coming out of the IDPADA-G standoff between the PPP Government and the entity dedicated to serving the interests of an umbrella of Black Guyanese entities.  I absorbed the tempered manner and measured tone of the Hon. Attorney General in signaling that the government is readying to go to the next step.

GHK Lall

That is, conversations between the two parties on the way forward; it is a far cry, a welcomed one, from where the two warring groups were, and still are.  Though through the mechanism of a intermediary, there is a the hope that stirs in that a mutually acceptable one would be found, and that some movement and closure to an open wound would occur.  Some people waiting in the streams of Guyanese life need it urgently.  It is time to put a stop to this seeking of opportunity to rage, unsheathe daggers, and twist the knife.

I commend the senior jurist for her stance, her words intended to urge to a place of reducing this ugly rift, one of healing.  It took the firm, guiding hand of the Chief Justice (ag) to lay down what is expected, it is what I have said more times than I care to remember.  It is of what has proved to work time and again, and in many situations, once there is genuine trying, bolstered by the essences of good faith.  At the end of the day, after all the impassioned verbal salvos and potshots and sniping, men and countries and those at loggerheads have to gather around a table and put their heads together to arrive at some form of compromise.  I repeat for whatever it is worth to passionate and prejudiced Guyanese (on both sides): conversation is a start that helps to a state of consensus that is sourced in compromise which, in turn, leads to cooperation. Not necessarily of the fullest, but of better than what was there before.  If and when we see no logic in that, can even find reason to shrink from that, then what we have is not a country mined only with diverse peoples.  What we have is a society bent on perpetuating hostility and malice, and the results of those, which we know all too well, for having lived with such since we became a nation.  Reciprocal hatreds are what is nurtured and given every infusion for those to flourish.

Separately, to be candid, and sharply so, I think that the AG was given a dirty job to do, that of cleanup officer.  I say this with the regard due.  The fact is that his senior did not speak well, and in a roiling way, which led to the matter being taken to the courts, with this default situation, this halfway house, resulting.

I have always said that if the people at IDPADA-G engaged in any hanky-panky with the monies entrusted to them, then the book must be thrown at them.  To this date, not even a hint of such action has been indicated; or, as I sense, dare to show its head.  This confirms for me that there was nothing there to begin with on that accusation about money being misused, as in fraud committed.  Months have elapsed since the diatribes that raged were uttered; since then, there have been some ineffectual pawing, grasping for straws, by the PPP Government.  The leadership has come up with smoke, hence the willingness of the AG, likely at the behest of his comrades, to close out this matter.  Though there is still a far way to go, the important thing to note is that there is some clearing of the throat, and leanings in the right direction.  Because all the while, the people that IDPADA-G serves are left hanging in a position that is far from heartening.

As also said before, I would exhort the man bringing suit, Mr. Vincent Alexander of IDPADA-G, to consider being magnanimous, and withdrawing same.  My point, my vision, is that we are too much eyeball to eyeball, and yanking out each other’s tongue.  This is not sustainable; it is definitely not in the best interests of Guyana for us to keep being pitted against each other in hostile bunkers, with nothing but a heavily mined no man’s land separating.  There would be no better hand of statesmanship; I venture to say of friendship.  Indeed, some hard and heated things were said, and some abrasive wrongs inflicted.  Still, I urge letting bygones be bygones.  For if and when we can’t do so, then all we live with is the circling following the same dispiriting and divisive track.  I trust that early closure will follow in this lamentable matter, so that some state of normalcy in IDPADA-G’s organization and operations could resume, so that the waiting can be assisted.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

• Chief Justice, conversation, GHK Lall, IDPADA-G, PPP Government