Dear Editor,
The calls keep coming. The chair should speak. I agree, as they have some merit. Here is why I think so.
Gecom is too delicate an entity and placed in too sensitive a time to be silent; and never more so than at this time. The longer the silence, amidst the continuing swirls of developments, the deeper the suspicions, the more sinister the conclusions. Why leave openings for every manner of conjecture, every con artist to weave magic tricks?
For starters, it is good to see the rambunctious fellows (commissioners they call them) put zips to their lips. Nice going gents; the silence is golden. Everything and everyone is orderly and disciplined, with channeling through the chair. It is the way it should be. Forget about if there is a doctor in the house. Look carefully, it always takes a woman-a strong one-to bring order to the house.
Now, whether struggling or strong, the chairlady should speak. May not be her style, or regular approach, or even in her contemplations on how to manage the place. But, in the instance of Gecom, no news is bad news. I do understand that any news is bad news, depending on which side of things local one stands. Now, I can be candid enough and call on her, since I have no use for fences. As I call on her and call her to come out, I state that this is not a courtesy call.
Speak. She should speak and share either as momentous developments occur; or on a fortnightly basis. I think that weekly might be a bit too much to stomach. I believe that those who recommend weekly mean well, but she may not have anything to say. Then again, Guyanese are past masters at hanging on to nothing and absorbing nothing, while contending that they have gained something. Look at how they lean on every word and syllable of political people they know are deceiving them; look at how they wrap themselves in the unending tomfooleries and vagabondage, while pretending to have been visited with profoundness of sages for the ages. I say leave weekly well alone; I suggest leaving some space for, (let me see what we have around this time) the NFL and the NBA. Even the spirited comedies in those two once-famous addresses should be accommodated. Those would be 10 Downing Street and 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The former has had better days; the latter was once that of the stars; fallen they sometimes are. I can’t recall a world leader ridiculed so much before. But I stray.
I thank the heavens that the so-called Guyanese Iron Lady is not a Twitter person. We have enough burdens already as it is. She should step up to the podium, face the microphones smile (try it) into the cameras and deliver. For when the chairwoman of Gecom speaks, all Guyana listens. Well not me; I am content to catch up on whatever was said the next day. In my scheme of considerations, that is how much of a premium I place on elections matters. Speaking instils confidence; it offers some semblance of structure and continuity; it brings (no matter how excoriated) a degree of credence.
I sense that coherence has been established at long last in Kingston, and to think that all that rowdiness and surliness prevailed so enduringly right there, while the Guyana Police Force is within a stone’s throw.
It is a steel chair. I think that she should exhibit just how much steel is in her; make clear once and for all who wears the pants in that house, now converted to the grandest of feminine castles. Come to think of it, I venture that the chairwoman wears the trousers in this country as a whole. There it is, I have said it: like it or lump it. It is the reality that is now prevalent currently, isn’t it?
I speak not for the opposition. Its people would have hysterics at such a thought. But, on behalf of each and every Guyana, and as self-appointed pleader: I croon: come to me softly. Speak softly… In the interests of decorum and protocol, I am compelled to omit that term of endearment (love). The Godfather movie Gecom is not, though sometimes I wonder. Still, I detect a godmother in action. Godmothers speak. Please do so.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
