Dear Editor,
This has to be a sick country, a very sick one that is, to use the vocabulary of the less literate, also totally spaced out. As I process this and that assertion, I conclude that there is a willing taking leave of senses by the many. To add to the chronic piteousness, the leaving is on a permanent basis.
We possess a constitution (I would assert that we are possessed by it) that is roundly condemned as counterfeit; blasted as without foundation; and damned to hell and beyond. And yet, there is referring to it, calling upon it, and leaning on this barbaric concoction as if it enshrined the properties of the divine. It is acceptable and reliable; or it is not. It is sacred and inspirational; or it is the handiwork of sorcerers and their political brethren and fellow travelers.
The Guyanese peoples, leaders, and public contributors have to make a hard choice: the constitution is worthy of consideration or reliance; or it is not worthy of the harshest denunciation, even in judgment. This has to be absolute: it is either one way or the other; no halfway measures and fiddling with this revulsion. The halfway house insisted upon by the half-witted has produced the half-baked leading to all of us being left half-naked and subject to the arbitrary and unpredictable. Repeatedly, this constitution has unleashed a swarm of angry tempests on a terribly worn-out, vulnerable land.
On another note, too many are still adamant that the constitution is all that there is to go on; that it is that or nothing else. Why is this being said? And how did they arrive at that loser’s paradise? I must disagree strenuously, as I think that at the heart of such illusions is the comfort of escapism, self-denial, and an utter unreadiness and reluctance from facing the demands of the hour and from the circumstances on the ground. I see leaders as being cowardly and devoid of either cerebral resourcefulness or prepared to make the hard calls demanded by the cards dealt.
Editor, I ask indulgence to suspend mentally the existence of any constitution for a moment. Where does that leave the leaders of this nation? Running to the only option of outsiders? And settling for that harbour? Surely, we can’t be this crass, this limited.
I must question: where is local and leadership brainpower? Where is local and leadership reasoning? Where is leadership good faith? Where is the leadership will to make things happen? How about marshalling all of the preceding and trying to find a way? The commonsense discernment and jarring reality are that there is a total absence of good faith in the political theatre, so this compels a rushing towards and for the international community. Surely, Guyanese leaders cannot be this handicapped, this pathetic, and this lacking in self-esteem that they are willing to sacrifice pride and dignity, that they do not care about losing face. Clearly, they are so deficient. And just as clearly, there is abandonment of any pretense of leadership and making tough choices when the weight of the world rests agonizingly. For since leaders have painted themselves in a corner and dug a hole for themselves, too, they had to surrender and clamour for and then hustle to those from overseas, who will pat on the head, tell what they want to hear, and make them feel good about themselves. A broker (and a foreign one) it must be.
Thus, it is to the international community. For the umpteenth time: there is no learning, no growing, no maturing (no manhood, too). In many respects, I perceive this as a convenient fallback, the supporting cover for indecision and trepidation. Thus, the international community is used as justification to share with a lost and fragile electorate that this is what was handed down. It is good; it must be good since it was blessed by foreigners, who are wiser than we by far. Thus, there must be the homage of adherence, even if the recommendations are contrary to plans. The international community is relied upon to perpetuate a Guyanese dependency syndrome; it is about acknowledging that that community has bigger brains, bigger guts, and bigger stick than us. It is a community that comes well-armed with all of those fundamentals so disastrously anaemic in this society and especially at the helm. I must admit that political leaders have done a good sales job on positioning this before a wretched electorate. Where is the shame in this place?
This has to be the pits of inferiority complex; the throes of welcomed and renewed intellectual and cultural submission of a different sort; a new craved-for political colonialism. I am getting to appreciate these isms. But all the while, I encourage the still sensible and the still patriotic to not lose sight of where we are as a people: we cannot help ourselves; we need the handout of helping hands to propel us to lift up our bed and walk. How we must incur disgust and disrepute (mocking laughter, too) before these locally created overseas saviours. Leaders in this country have come to a sorry place: it is either my way or that mandated by the international people. My remaining issue is this: why do we need these local lightweights, if all they are good for is to run to foreign mommas when the Gog and Magog of a bind stares in the face? It is worth saying again: those who can’t face the heat, should get out of the kitchen; and those who overpromised to supporters have only themselves to blame.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
