Dear Editor,
I am astonished that expectant Guyanese (and foreign diplomats) have failed to manage themselves better. What the ruling party’s attack agents have dished out with thoughtless abandon is all that is known, that is present within. To demand anything else is not only unrealistic, but fails to recognize the massive limitations of the characters involved.
This is what results when the bottom-house ascends to State House; and when the outhouse takes up unmistakable residence in Parliament House. The cosmetics are overpowering, the language is coarse, and the people even more so. What was publicly addressed to the UK plenipotentiary (and others prior) is considered civilized communication. It is the politically correct (by ruling party standards) 21st century version of: ‘Down with America! Down with colonialism! Down with imperialism! The vocabulary of today may have changed, but this is the extent of the locals’ lexicon. They do not know better, and aspire to nothing cleaner or higher.
A close look would indicate that both education and mentality are implacably concentrated on ideology, power, control, unilateralism, centralism, and secrecy. Nothing else was covered in the training schools of the KGB on Lubyanka Square, or in those of the Warsaw Pact satellites. Those who managed to sneak into school in the Western world are dedicated, in the manner of converts, to proving themselves redder than their red comrades, through a shrill bellicosity bereft of both brain and brawn. It is why the Foreign Relations outlook has a thick North Korean strain that surfaces when challenged.
It is why I encourage those Guyanese still in denial to discern what unfolds before their eyes: Those in the governing party, who rush to the forefront to lash out at the recalcitrant consider the exhibitionism to be both normal and of an acceptable standard. This is good behaviour, as their language in private (or in the home) is reported to be of a saltier, more expressive variety. Down with tact and subtlety and all those who don’t like it.
In view of all of the foregoing, it is clear that this country has been blessed with much more than a Dirty Dozen or so; it is a veritable Wild Bunch of unlimited rascality, and a mentality to match. As said many times before, these folks have no upbringing, no training, no standards, and no class. And they could care less. Remember that old saw: you could put lipstick on a pig, dress it in an Armani suit and send it to Oxford; but at the end of the day, it is still a pig. And that is what is present here at the highest levels and in ever expanding circles.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
