Dear Editor,
When does this political nonsense stop? How could anyone believe that certain shabby, at least suspect, practices will not see the light of day? And how anyone, especially those on the media and political radars, think that they can get away with slippage? I shake my head and wonder why I am even bothering to waste time to write about this. But I still do.
Slippage has to be the euphemism to end all euphemisms. Take a partial look: Academic scholarships for children and family members (way better applicants denied and left behind), cushy jobs for relatives (for which they are neither the most fit nor most proper), and rich contracts for those in the bosom (which raises issues of ethics and just plain damn common sense). This is not a closed society; its leaders may have aspirations for a communist one and all the controls and tyrannies that go with that state, but Guyana is still relatively open, and relishing it.
It has, in parts, a vigilant and vibrant Fourth Estate; a reasonably fair and unbiased one. This media estate has neither been diversified nor downsized up to this point. On the contrary, it spouts and spreads wings all over in various sharp silhouettes. Some are formidable and very little passes undetected, and with special emphasis on things involving political players, things that smell of taint or mere question. Also, there is that ubiquitous, sometimes malicious, occasionally magnanimous universe called social media. Its denizens do not need proof; all they need is a whiff, a rumour, an innuendo, and it is off to the paradise of cyber exposure and the overkill of electronic warfare. Innocents can get plastered. It does not matter. Let the word go forth.
Now in this matter involving housing, contract, spouses, and a minister there is a duty to afford innocence. After all, this is not an indecent, barbaric nation. And yet, some things, on the sheer face of it, reeks of the improper, the unthinking, and the unacceptable. How could anyone be so reckless as to harbour powerful sentiments of untouchability, undetectability, and unaccountability? Even if there is absolutely nothing wrong in that housing business, it looks bad, smells bad, and is bad. In this time and technological era, this day of the marauding media, this nonconfidential society, I am astonished that any of the high profile-be it a minister, a masquerader, or the masonic-still feel that they can get away with the personal atrocities and official depravities of yore. It is illuminating as to hubris and that ingrown sense of exceptionalism that so many in positions of power and influence persist in throwing caution to the winds, and to dismiss watchers and citizens as fools and of no consequence. They do so to satiate greed, and longstanding visions of what power is all about. The misuse of power, the poisoned fruits of power.
Former leaders and ministers engaged in similar behaviour on a grand scale and plundered this country. They thought they could get away with such. And despite the best efforts of lawyers at arranging the exits facilitated by technicalities and loopholes, they are damned in the court of public opinion as cheap hustlers. I daresay what is happening today under this government reflects some of that diseased pallor. The wattage may not be as intense nor expansive, but it is there. And I believe that this latest matter involving housing falls into that category. A president is embarrassed. If my assessment of him in relation to these matters is on the money, then I would like to think that he is acutely uncomfortable and furious. I would be.
Editor, it is not only in housing that the air is rank and brings motion sickness. There are other reports and other heavy whispers, enduring whispers, of other portfolios with one racket after another against their names and practices. They are around. Businessmen, once held up as pillars of lily-white commercial cleanliness are aware that their covers are blown. It might be evading, or trading, or trafficking, or whatever in an endless list of multiple felony violations. All the real estate, all the altruistic pursuits, all the character regentrification are not enough to mask or eliminate that which stand as haunting registers and irrefutable testimonies as to the evils inflicted on this land.
This government came about on promises of change. Four years later, and many mistakes later, this is neither change nor some semblance of it. With every respect, if His Excellency is not disturbed or moved, he should be. I am, and I am a nobody. I would fire just about all of those who bring his example and vision into disrepute. He knows them well. There is one problem: this political society does not work this way. And therein is the sum of local prodigality.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
