Dear Editor,
I refer to the article titled, `Polls can be held by end of October’ (SN August 23). I detect a slow shifting in the winds, which I now explore some more.
It is neither subtle nor strident, nor the hard ultimatums of earlier that led to the fevers and throes that plagued and enthralled the nation in prior months. Because I think embedded in that “end of October” position are integral aspects of a more pragmatic and reasoned approach towards what has bedevilled and promises to continue to do so. I hasten to add that definitive compromise it is not; yet I sense some political minds adjusting to the realities of what is on the ground. It is small, but significant. It is welcomed. I believe that there will be more; but it now has to come from across the political divide.
There has to be some equivalent signal from the government’s camp that it, too, is inching forward to a more palatable, more workable position, through drawing closer to that now emerging (stated) point in time. Something specific and unambiguous must issue from government’s quarters. The coalition’s own voices have been heard speaking about December. That was neither accidental nor forced.
Rather, I see that narrowing of things to the vicinity of December as a starting point, the first spit bubble and smoke signal, as I like to term such. And as said before, there is some sentiment at presidential elevations for this thing to happen this year. My thinking is that, whatever date(s) come out from within government’s places and people, there will be movement from the latest stated and public positions of December, on the one hand, and now the end of October, in the next, from the opposite side. Forces are at work and helping to nudge things along.
To be clear, political minds and visions are not yet at the stage of what could be accurately termed concrete consensus on anything. But I would submit that those same leadership minds are mellowing. When looked at, even on the run, there isn’t much of a difference between late October and wherever in December. I do not think that any government would be so crass as to consider the offering and finalizing of arrangements for during any date after, say, December 20th. Remember that date and think of how close it is to the now seismic no-confidence motion and passage (and energies and traumas) that unfolded last December.
Since it is, however dissected, a matter of approximately six weeks separating the intervening space (October 31 to around December 13), I predict that, with some more massaging of minds, calculations, and rhetoric, an elections timetable could be agreed upon by both parties for sometime in November. I am of the belief that this would be closer to end of October than that of November.
Editor, it is still early days, so there is nothing to applaud. But I foresee some movement towards a meeting of the minds. As I have always stated, this is where all the preliminaries of constitution and provisions, courts and decisions, and media management and hardline positions have to coalesce gradually and authoritatively. That is, where men meet and muscle through the minutiae, after having made up their minds that all that went before were mere preludes. Indeed, it is when and where the thunder and lightning subside into weak, insignificant echoes and shadows of themselves, and when real, meaningful conversations can begin. People actually listen to each; they hear each other and then they arrive at that place of agreement that all the other options have been exhausted, and there are no more cards to offer and play. Reality steps in and seals the deal. The public gesturing and posturing have to cease, and men have to huddle hearts and heads in private to shut this business down. The next stage(s) beckon.
This is where we are at this time. Thus, I say sometime around the middle of November the latest. This gives enough time to count (and quarrel) after that date, while still leaving time for Christmas and the festivities that go with that special season. If anybody care, it’s the most wonderful time of the year. I do hope that Guyanese can sing that this year.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
