Dear Editor,
It is with great disappointment that I read of President Granger’s rejection of the second Gecom list. As words go, disappointment is most mild, yet in this instance, it covers a whole world of territory all jagged and increasingly impassable. It is a dark troubling world that will only get more unyielding and unsatisfactory as calculations drift apart and minds harden.
Leaving the most recent list behind, this has gone on for too long and too tortuously. The society may be outwardly quiet, but there is growing uneasiness from many a conscientious and patriotic corner. What next? There is an invitation for discussion between the political leaders which is encouraging, but which suggests another couched word that means nothing other than struggling not to cry at a funeral. Then what?
There should be a discarding of all the street intelligentsia’s deliberations and conclusions about chess games, red herrings, and stealth candidates. They are as pointless as they are useless in the final scheme of matters. The question persists: after invitation and likely acceptance, followed by clear exchanges of positions (and acceptable names), then what? More specifically, who is going to be found not unacceptable and fit and proper for this most crucial, most controversial, and most complexioned of positions?
It is public knowledge that the opposition, for its part, is running out of choices, as in willing and interested citizens. The few decent folks around, who just might measure up, have no desire to be anywhere near that chairperson’s responsibility, or under that Sword of Damocles. The opposition itself can corroborate this, given the number of people who turned down its approach and overtures to be nominated for that now fateful second list.
As I see things, the only candidates left who might not be unacceptable to the President and fit and proper according to he and his party’s calculations are those who would almost automatically be found wanting and ruled out by the opposition. This is the unmoving place where this society finds itself two years after the pyrotechnics of May 2015, and three years before who knows what lies ahead.
On a personal note, I say this again: In view of some access and exposure, there is absolutely no interest in the return of those who devastated this land for a long time, and now salivate at the prospect of being in a position to do so again. Given that financial holocaust, the mindset should be: never again! There should be horror at the mere thought, let alone the reality, of such a development.
Notwithstanding this perspective, already there is the commonsense discernment that 2020 shapes up to be more fiercely competed, more high stakes, and more disrupting even from this early day. Losing is not an option coûte que coûte; that goes for anybody and everybody. And the believed
ironclad reassurance of such starts and resides in the being of the chairperson of Gecom. Hence, there is this insurmountable impasse now: the election commences right now with the final decision of chairperson of Gecom. It is won or lost on that pivotal move, and it cannot be a misstep.
If this is the situation today in 2017, then it should not require any stroke of genius to presage what is promised in less than a handful of disquieting years ahead. It must be expressed, even though it will not find favour. Now that the endless glories of oil enrich the political prize, the local arena increasingly assumes the intensely fevered heat of unfolding political delirium.
Those who have turned down the nomination know this, and some of those raising a hand to step forward do not know what they do not know, brave face and all. And, of course, the political kingpins know this more than everybody put together. It is why there is this game over the chairpersonship of Gecom. Whoever it turns out to be will have all the powers of a kingmaker, and will be called upon to deliver one at a most roiling hour.
Editor, my own growing concern is that after all the nuanced movements, all the calibrations and calculations, and all the sagacity around this politically seismic prone place, there is little new ground covered; there is little give and less take. It is that stark and inarguably obvious in this search for a chairperson for Gecom. As matters stand, it is easier to elect a head-of-state for Guyana, than to select a chair for Gecom.
It should come as no surprise, therefore, why the richest nation in this region is incontestably the most backward, the biggest loser, a real basket case, and a perpetual one.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
