Dear Editor,
PPP General Secretary Donald Ramotar’s comment in response to the shenanigans of one of its own, that the PPP is not a party that would kill people for the first mistake they make, is facetious, sanctimonious, and utterly mind-boggling. In the first place, Mr Lall’s mistake exceeded the restricted and authoritative boundaries of his party’s disciplinary machinery. And in the second place, this is a party renowned for calling down the proverbial thunder on certain segments of the Guyanese populace, not only for their first individual or collective “mistake,” but even when they are not the ones directly involved in such “mistakes.” It should be enough that the example of this incident involving the Comrade Minister mirrors the manner in which George Orwell’s Animal Farm revolutionaries added suffixes to the rules they pledged to live by, in order to accommodate the whims and fancies of some.
The response of the government and political party in power to this latest incident involving one of their own is proof positive of the mammoth hubris inundating the halls of political power in Guyana. Look, let’s be honest and upfront here. The actions of the minister were not beyond the pale in terms of the expressions of machismo we are accustomed to seeing in Our Dear Land of Guyana. This kind of behaviour, unfortunately, has always been reflective of the dirty laundry that inundates our social interactive closet. In fact it is typical. But what grosses many of us out, I solemnly believe, is the level of arrogance reflected in the official response to the Minister’s faux pas: the ‘we do not have to account to anyone but ourselves’ attitude of the ruling party and government. Remember that this is a party that does not waste an opportunity to extol its role in bringing democracy to Guyana. But again, as with the Stabroek News ads situation, the ghastly spectre of extra-judicial torture and killings, the Nelson’s eye given to the activities of a fugitive felon, we are witnesses to the manifestations of the scent of absolute power. Orwell’s latter-day revolutionaries shifting the pillars and foundations of established democratic principles in order to accommodate anything and everything that they do, or wish to do.
Yours faithfully,
Robin Williams
