It was very telling that on St Valentine’s Day, when love was supposedly in the air there was none in the National Assembly. Instead, it was business as usual – the squabble that occurs each time the government and main opposition party meet these days.
Obviously, there is no love lost between these two, but where is the mutual love they both claim to have for the country? Are their differences so deep, wide and high that they cannot be surmounted for the common good? Is there no cause worthy enough that would ever see these antagonists call a truce?
One would have thought that the Lusignan slaughter was such a cause. But it was clear from day one that there was going to be blame-tossing and mud-slinging while they each tried to emerge from the fray smelling of roses.
As if this were not despicable enough, the need to score points off each other moved to Parliament where the pettiness involved was enough to make one gag. As one would imagine, there was agreement that a motion designed to condemn the massacre take precedence over the business of the House. No one wants to be seen as churlish by refusing to consider such a request. Then what happens? The motion is reportedly worded in such a way that one side was bound to take umbrage at it and things fell apart.
The ruling party felt the motion was deliberately worded in such a way as to make it look bad, though why it should imagine it now looks good is a mystery. The main opposition party said the motion could have been amended, so it asked for quarter; none was given.
If it wasn’t before, it should now be clear to all of us what to expect if we continue to be led by a government and opposition whose hatred for each other is so entrenched that they will continue to pull for opposite sides while the country unravels in the middle. When the threads become so weak that we all sink to the bottom of the pit, they will stand on either side still blaming each other, rather than giving us a hand up.
Someone once said that anyone who set himself/ herself up as a candidate to rule a country had to have either great love or a great ego. Let Guyanese be the judges of what is greater here.
