Dear Editor,
I am glad to observe, however reluctantly and carefully, that a spirit of compromise is trickling into the business of Gecom. The new chairwoman, Justice Claudette Singh, already has a new moniker: Iron Lady. To that I am ready to add some other tough female political characters, namely Indira Gandhi and Golda Meir, even Elizabeth I. Time will tell how the lady chair of Gecom fills the bill. Even now I detect that the unruly at Gecom (and in Guyana) have had one of those come to momma moments. Justice Singh is indicating that, indeed, she is the queen of the castle.
In view of what is shaping up at Gecom, I must disagree with those who say that Guyanese don’t know how to behave. Or that most are unable to temper speech and comport themselves with dignity. To the critical, I say: just listen and look. Everybody has hat in hand and duly respectful; the tones and pitches are softer. Follow the releases from both sides and the stridency of Old Testament rage and impatience have progressed to the milder language of the Gospel according to Jesus. Actually, a far cry from that, but a start has been made.
It is a good step to watch the deference paid to the new chairwoman: I heard the chair will listen and consult. And the chair will speak. Looking further afield, I think this could set standards for parliament that most raucous of environments; set example for children; and set a bar for society. All have long been undisciplined and unmanageable.
Not to be carried away, however, both sets of commissioners had to have received scripts and orders from Congress Place and Freedom House: slow down, tamp down the volume, tack the sails, adjust body language. In Guyana, commissioners are chosen not for being thinkers or negotiators; but for possessing the strength to hold to the death to the party line. Now, there is the uttering of one cautious phrase at a time through well-managed stage productions. Truth be told, the pig-iron positions of both sides could not be maintained. Arthur Fiedler and Arturo Toscanini would have bowed.
Thus, I sense the first creeps from earlier hard, repeatedly stated position. Minute, but there; yet I think that everybody is seeking to save some face through stepping back (without appearing to do so) from the nothing of the brink. For the first time, I think that the hints are more than spit bubbles and trial balloons; they are more like initial signals that promise some flexibility, possible movement.
I believe that the majors are prepared (or readying) to work towards some middle ground. How much of a middle it will be, and what is acceptable to whom is a work-in-progress.
From my standpoint, and at this early point, I must make something very clear: whatever is in the works (it worked for the appointment of a chairwoman) must also apply towards the small interrelated issues of a list and a date; those are where the pedal meets the metal. The proof as to seriousness must come on these two roiling issues.
Having said this, I say this: compromise towards consensus cannot be a temporary convenience, even if a compelled one. It will only occur through the conviction that compromise is vital in Guyana’s concentric racial, political, and social environments; there is both irrefutable logic and inevitability to those unchanging local realities. As much as the racial and political camps would like to think so, the hegemonies of the past cannot-and will not-be successful. This has been sparred with before, realizing only temporary and partial success. That is now history; it has done this society little good, other than for individual harvesters of political plums and protections.
Moving forward, when leaders and groups compromise (they must) to get past list and date, there will then be two new issues, and even more burning and controversial. The first is not so new, but very old, and would centre around the count and final result. I don’t foresee how the norm will not prevail. The second issue that promises to worm its way into matters at that critical juncture (if not before) would be the overseas vote. Just to be really clear on that one, I point to suspicions that would harden (or at the very least be used) on the presence and purpose of the Haitians. How that figures into the bigger picture is anybody’s guess at this time. Regardless, Guyana should get ready for a jolly Christmas, though the new chair does not quite have a Santa Claus air about her.
In sum, I think that compromise incentivizes continuity in a significantly better way of a perpetually weakened economy, relative to disrupted dreams and visions, and away from the finality of a hitherto shallow present and future, regularly sabotaged ones. Compromise must continue to occur right now before oil, during oil, and beyond oil. Otherwise, where this nation was poor and did have vast potential, it would merely be poor and with nothing of promise remaining for consolation.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
