Dear Editor,
It has to be a painful, wrenching moment for Mr. Ralph Ramkarran. Yet matters had to come to this revealing pass, this enlightening present. The former speaker must be recognized for being a man of rare decency and commendable integrity. The time it took matters not, only that it happened, and happened without condition; that it came through powerful self examination, and culminated in the guiding dictates of conscience. At long last in this country, someone has taken a stand for integrity over loyalty and principle over party. I salute Mr. Ramkarran.
This could not have been easy, but it could not have been avoided; some things are so stark as to be inevitable, irreversible. Like domestic violence the abuses are visible, the infidelities obscene, the secrets known, the devastation immeasurable. The children and extended family despair; the village knows. So does the national village. Yes, it was a long time coming, and could not have been avoided. At least not for any man with a conscience and a shred of honesty left. I salute Mr. Ramkarran again.
To the handful of those in the PPP, who have some semblance of conscience remaining, any vestige of patriotism left, any iota of decency lingering, the time has drawn near for them to decide, to take a stand. In fact, the time is here; it is now for them to stand up and be counted; for it to be remembered that when it really mattered, they took a stand on the side of what is honourable. Let Mr. Ramkarran not be the only true “Russian patriot” at Stalingrad in this irony of ironies. I exhort those few decent to do it for the children, for the future, for this country that cries out its anguish in the face of all that is soulless and savage. And of all that is dirty and stinking and tawdry and corrupt and craven and crass. There is so much more that is wrong and abominable that out of sheer decency must be left unsaid. But this is what the PPP now represents.
The PPP has lost its moorings and continues its long slide to self destruction. It is a slow slide, but one that began a while now. Now the rents are showing. The public sees and hears what it knew to be truth, what was always undeniable.
It has been said many times before here, but allow me to say it one more time: those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad. The madness of the immoral defending the indefensible, and the uncouth rationalizing the irrational. Such are the monstrosities that bedevil this land. There are others, but this will do for now.
To the rest of the country, I say gird yourselves. A scorch-the-earth policy is to be expected from those in their bunkers; they are determined to perpetuate the ugliness created, their hold on the nation’s treasures, and delay their day of judgment. But destiny is never denied, and never more so than to the ungodly. It is where hubris leads. Always does.
So, the search for today continues; the longing for a better tomorrow burns more fiercely. I hear Aeschylus talking to me and my fellow Guyanese: “In our sleep, pain which cannot forget falls drop by drop on the heart until, in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.” May that wisdom come to us, may that that peace be ours.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
