Dear Editor,
The calls have been loud and many for the head of the embattled Minister of Health, Dr George Norton. I did go against the grain, and suggested that a full unconditional public apology should suffice, which would then allow him exit from the furnance. But now, there is concern that he is humiliating self, while embarrassing others like me, by his repeated antics.
He did apologize, but as I understand matters, required documents were either missing or lacked a signature. The next straw involved the non-disclosure of a key name in the bond contract debacle. Perhaps, it might be more accurate to state that the Minister refuses outright to deliver the identity of the missing party. This must be one sensitive figure for him to protect to this extent at this stage of the hurly-burly.
I am willing to (or was) to give Dr Norton the benefit of the doubt, since I am familiar with how these things work. Ministers usually depend on others to do the heavy lifting, hard running, and required due diligence. They listen, question, offer specific directions, make decisions, and append signature. Part of the problem could be that the Minister depended on inherited people, who led him down the primrose path; people with a knack for doing business a certain old-fashioned way. Now look at where things have ended up, and who has to take the rap. By no means must this be considered an immunization of the Minister; he is ultimately answerable; he should know and do better.
Meanwhile, the government should be commended for the remediation developments that have occurred thus far in this scandal, critics notwithstanding. I cannot recall any such equivalents during the previous financial reign of terror. Now I respectfully call upon the President to put a much-needed end to this disaster by commanding the presence of his Minister of Health and read him the riot act, through laying out his own cards. In other words, the President must be clear and unambiguous, as well as impatient, if not angry: cut the nonsense out, and come clean through and through right now. No more drips and drabs, no more stonewalling, no more dissembling and finessing.
Editor, if I am embarrassed, I should think that President Granger would also be embarrassed. This shabby business has gone on for too long, and it ought to be closed out through a quick clean death, which permits proceeding to other pressing affairs. The longer this raging controversy stays in the spotlight, the more the entire government is made to look bumbling, evasive, and having things to hide. If Dr Norton cannot comply, will not deliver, then he has to go.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
