A plain language constitution is needed

Dear Editor,

I notice that the erudite and seasoned presence of Dr. David Hinds has taken to the media to raise that very specific issue, which I have been pounding, in my little way, for a while now.  Finally, someone has lent voice and pen and weight, at least in the spirit, to point to the farce of prioritizing an elections date as the alpha and omega to Guyana’s political crisis.

For maybe the fifth or sixth time, I ask publicly: an elections date is settled, then what?  There is an elections and the results are announced and made official, then what?  Where to?  And how? I am shocked (and I thought that I had passed that stage in this country and life itself) to observe learned men, once-believed wise men, definitely sensible men and women highlight and emphasize the be-all and end-all of an elections date.  At all costs.  And without looking beyond.  There is nothing that reiterates in the most embarrassing manner the narrow-mindedness, the backwardness, and uselessness of such an emphasis and insistence.  It is a date with the devil.

Editor, I take this in another direction besides the ones I usually travel.  I will not speak today about the response in the streets or elsewhere to whatever result is finalized with regards to which party is victorious.  Instead, I approach from this angle: first, there is a date; second, there is a winner; and third, there are the best of circumstances, and there is an actual government in hospitable times.  Then I foresee, and am willing to guarantee, that whatever follows would be along the identical lines with regards to the philosophy, place, priority, and commitment behind the rehabilitation of the existing constitution.  A constitution damned by one and all, except when they end up in the winner’s circle.  To be sure, the victorious can be trusted to get around to it in due course.  That clock is still frozen way below subzero temperatures; it is part of the political permafrost so pervasive in this land, and which aligns well with the political machinations, political wickedness, and political irresponsibility and reckless prevailing around here.  Is it any wonder that this society repeats the political circus and political crisis every five years?  Now every four years?  And, of course, while living with the smaller crises in between?

Editor, I am ready to make a concession.  Let there be the assumption and willingness to believe that some form of constitutional reform is embarked upon; that there are some energies dedicated to get to some place on this.  The first thing I would say is that reform is not what is going to be the result.  Those entrusted with this sacrosanct task are too cunning and slick to deliver something that approaches some vestige of reform.  Rather, there will be a replacement document that is more about reengineering than reforming.  Such reengineering would be nuanced and deceptive, and most likely contain more loopholes than Swiss cheese.  I see such a development as erecting safe havens to immunize wily politicians and give them the respite to meander, pontificate, and live many other political days and lives.

Editor, what is called for, what is demanded, is a plain language constitution that removes all the interpretive uncertainties, the linguistics minefields, and the bloodless sword fencing engaged in by every political group, of every political stripe; they are the only ones unbloodied.  Since the elites at the helm are so perverse, and cannot be trusted, I would go so far as to recommend that each clause and provision come fully accompanied by its own subtitles.  Meaning that this is what this means, and only this.  Let there be the will and eagerness to eliminate the subterfuges and deviousness that pass for intellect and the scholarly in this country.  I think that we are so dumb (but think we are so smart) that this kind of handholding and interpretive crutch are absolutely necessary and should be nonnegotiable.  Otherwise, it is the same song and dance for the future cycle of the next forty years, but this time with new language and new political and legal jumbie stories through which to generate perpetuation, iniquity, and injustice.

Editor, as should be clear by now, I have little interest in any damned date.  That encompasses all the threnody and poignancy of a long-delayed funeral.  This interlude with its cacophonies and tumults are but the shrill shouts characteristic of a drunken wake.  Meanwhile, the body politic that is Guyana lies prostrate and un-embalmed and in plain sight.  It is a sight isn’t it?  It smells, doesn’t it?  It agitates and upends, doesn’t it?  Well, that is all Guyanese hanging on by the thread of a fingernail and praying for the best.  There is one problem: God is not listening.  And don’t believe Al Green: God is not standing by.  Not for this troubled place.

Yours faithfully,

GHK Lall