In a column in this space in mid-January 2012, in the aftermath of the general election, I wrote the following: “The playing out of this scenario, in very public view, of a President sitting in a Parliament, where his party is outnumbered by the coalesced opposition, is going to mean that the normal ruling party dictates will not be operating in Guyana, and this manoeuvering for consensus, by its very nature, is going to require exemplary people, people of character, for the governing apparatus to work. Ultimately, leaders will emerge from this process, and within the elapsed time of this government, we will have learned a great deal about these Guyanese we have selected to represent us. “We will find out who among this group are statesmen, or stateswomen, and who are not. We are going to see in whom resolve, and restraint, and tolerance reside, and in whom such qualities are absent. We are going to see where there is mental and moral strength, and where egos or selfish aims rule.
“Such are the circumstances in which the recent voting has left us, and while it is certainly going to be intensive and taxing in the Parliament, it will also be absorbing to watch from the outside. At the end of it, whenever that is, we will know considerably more about who our political people really are – what is their character, in effect – than we now know. Additionally, and not incidentally, we will also have learned much about ourselves.”
Today, only 16 months later, we are seeing revelations and surprises coming virtually daily from a wide variety of subjects and individuals, and we have indeed learned a great about our leaders. We have a much better idea now as to who among them appreciates the leverage of compromise and who among them continually resorts to bluster, and, ironically, such understanding has not
