Dear Editor,
An opposition honcho is calling on government members of parliament to “vote their conscience.” Anytime that expansive magical word “conscience” comes into play in a positive manner, the altruistic and profound are sure to be surrounding and deeply embedded. It simply follows, just is. This is regardless of the source of such a call. No matter how rigidly and vastly conscienceless such a source has been throughout. It is worth a look at what has been, what is encompassed.
I stand to be corrected, but I cannot recall at any time in the long troubled parliamentary history of independent Guyana when any of its honourable members voted their conscience; voted conscience by stepping away from the ugliness of the fray and making a signature statement that resonated with the bold breathtaking uniqueness of precedent. It has been the pack, the team, the group: always and forever the party. Think of this: outside of parliament and at a wider level, there is no recollection of past and present public supporters (ideologues, party loyalists, letter contributors, local and overseas recruits et al) breaking ranks and even questioning the irrational and the indefensible; through registering public dismay, if not disgust. Not one of them; not then, not now. It has been a situation of circle the wagons and put up the barricades: all for one and one for all. Learned men, well-paid men, tribal men have all submerged intellect, reason, judgement, independence, and good sense to toe the party line, hold the fort, and damn the naysayers. Where has conscience been at the times when needed the most?
Men owe billions and extract more; men arrange millions from the state (through that same parliament) and still evade more; men brought in by the planeload cargoes of the proceeds of death and desolation, and none in the penthouses or trenches knew that they had this spiritual voice called conscience, this cautionary questioning pang termed conscience, this restraining correcting virtue named conscience. This thing that distinguishes man from beast, the criminal from the patriotic, and the rightminded from the dastardly. Conscience it is, but where is it? Where has this noble guiding hand been in our political figures either old or new, illustrious or deformed?
To be sure, there have been men who, having weighed the odds and counted the possibilities, did take the gargantuan leap of crossing the floor in defiance of kind and tradition and reputation. Those were not any exercise in conscience; but coldblooded calculations involving personal opportunity and personal aggrandizement. And, of course, those were at the expense of voters, taxpayers, and believers. Where is the biggest return? Who is offering sweet solaces through promises of what can be, will be. With conscientious men of this ilk, it is the tawdry pottages of wine, women, song, dance, and all the cash that is desired. They have all of that and more to offer. So men have nibbled. One has to wonder what is in the works today….
I am astounded that those who never displayed a single smidgen of conscience are today glistening gaudily through loud calls for the manifestation of this largely elusive, mostly unrecognizable idea and ideal called conscience.
Editor, I will always support exercising of conscience at the individual level and voting of conscience in political contexts when it is for the better of country. But look closely and it becomes clearer that vote conscience is not about country but about cheap politics. Loyalty to country should always trump loyalty to party. Somehow in this country that, too, has been obscured and trampled upon in the rush for that intoxicant called power through political machinations. Country be damned! The sturdy approbation of sensitive, finely tuned, honourable conscience would impel even more honourable men to prioritize the national before the personal, the societal instead of the political, and the greater good as opposed to the capricious and self-serving, as has been the case.
TS Elliot wrote that the seas surround us, but a river runs inside us. Honourable men and women in this country, in and out of parliament, should take a stand and stand up by putting on display what kind of river it really is in each of us.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
