Dear Editor,
The decline of British Prime Minister, Mrs. Theresa May, should stand as a lesson for Guyana’s President, Mr. David Granger. There are eerie parallels that must be avoided at all costs in the less than a year left, if Mr. Granger is to weather his overhang of political storms.
Mrs. May has served as PM for less than three years, even making allowance for her future departure date of June 7; Mr. Granger has led for four years, even when factoring in the shackles of the no-confidence outcome in late last December. I would argue that, in both instances, it is not enough time to dismantle the matters at hand before each of them. Too controversial; too populated with the unmovable and unmoving. In Mrs. May’s case, it was Brexit, and will be remembered as the guillotine that parted her hair; she escapes with her head. In the instance of Mr. Granger’s, it is the perceived and actual nature of unchanging corruption across the length of this land, and on too many points of the circumference of his political circle. In sum, that there was neither sufficiency of, nor satisfactory, movement on this burning issue in Guyana’s days. That could be the gamechanger.
In both situations before both leaders, the common underlying sentiment is that they are not hardline enough with those internal threats from comrades, which sabotages their visions, their programmes, and their charges to implement. Instead of the stare down of confrontation and the throwdown of conflict for purposes of control and cooperation, there was reserve, restraint, and reluctance to tangle and takedown and takeout. Internal calculators in Great Britain, and internal manipulators in Guyana have undermined and weakened the strategies and thrusts of their leaders.
Like Mrs. May, Mr. Granger has garnered a reputation for being slow to act; particularly against those within the fold, who pose existential danger. Time and again, reports and evidence of chronic infidelity have left the president exposed, just like the Prime Minister. Citizens are impatient. This extends to those in Mr. Granger’s support base. Though not considerable, and with traditional passions sure to resurface in the clinch of the final rounds, the dissenting still could be enough to make a difference in the forthcoming cellophane-thin electoral contest to be a difference maker. Unlike Mrs. May, though, Mr. Granger’s probable upheaval could be at the hands of the voters and not from the inside. Politics in Guyana does not work at that level.
For her part, Mrs. May initially drew a red line in the sand on Brexit, and then kept curving and moving that line inward. The same can be said of Mr. Granger, who articulated a new day and a new way at the onset of his administration, and then found ways to look the other way when comrades and countrymen (countrywomen, too) went their own way and left him looking a figure without a way. Instead of getting in the face of the errant, Mr. Granger stayed cemented in place.
In spite of his privately uttered, but publicly unexpressed, disgust, matters on the corruption front ended up being the same old dirty business of business as usual. The scale and magnitude are still to be fully examined and discerned for comparative analysis. It is not encouraging. In the interim and fallout, the president lost much goodwill, which is a priceless ingredient in Guyanese politics. Apathy has set in among his own. I number myself among the disappointed and discomfited.
Mrs. May has been accused of lacking courage; I believe that this is rightly so. As he is a former soldier, I think it would be inappropriate to place that deficiency on the president. I would venture, though, that his will could be subject to harsh, and not inaccurate, dissection. In the runup to the looming elections, I still believe that the president has the space and opportunity to make matters right. Unlike Mrs. May who vacillated, Mr. Granger has to be decisive and ruthless. Close people have to be set straight; things and people and places shaken up; and heads rolled. There are many of the latter; most have a long way to go.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
