Dear Editor,
I skimmed the tributes for the departed Vic Persaud, long serving Chief of Protocol in Guyana’s Diplomatic Service. The best I come with is: most impressive, indeed! It sounds rather tame, but should suffice. And though I didn’t know this illustrious son of Guyana, besides media coverages, I make these simple observations. The late Vic Persaud was one of a rare breed, one now mostly disappeared into a distinctively extinct state. Given how matters are perched locally, and thinking at leadership levels, I would venture that that state of extinction is permanent, irreversible. That is regrettable. It is most unfortunate, because I refuse to believe that there was/is just one Guyanese – currently alive or recently dead – who is of the standing required, to serve under one president only, in a single political administration alone. I would doubt, I would hope, that we have not deteriorated to such an acrimonious and ramshackle state of insecurity that we live in the perpetual twilight of ‘no confidence’ regarding the integrity, devotion, and singular qualitative caliber of our cohorts public servants past, present, and future. But even as I hope against hope, methinks that I am on the right track.
Editor, on this one I am as close to unequivocal as I ever can be, and for simple reasons. There is a level of leadership viciousness and vindictiveness – born of premeditated malice, petulance, and truculence – that is domestically unprecedented. It is what leaders thrive on, live for, and make a living from, in the exercise of power. No Chief Executive is considered loyal enough, unless a personal rite of passage has been endured and proven before the auspices of the political inquisitions that reign here. No lowly clerk is off limits from the arcing nets twirled and hurled in the widest possible sweeps to capture and condemn into nonexistence, because of the contrivances and caprices of leading political operators curled and knotted a certain way. It is why we have what we have at almost every rung within what passes for the public service. There is an army of these faithful, who are fearful and watchful because their continued claim to presence depends on the imperceptible nod of monstrous mandarins.
I saw the accolades for the late, maybe great, Vic Persaud, who was thought to be straight by Guyana’s Executive Presi-dents. Man! That is one glorious height. It is the only qualification that matters, that always should be the only one that means something. And because there is great leadership difficulty with coming close to such pristine outlooks of life, we have only one like Vic Persaud. The silver cord of public service for many others is cut, or wrenched and ruptured, by small men pretending at big visions, while they play destructive games. It is my understanding that there was/is an Executive Secretary, who had served four presidents; maybe five, if she is still around. Why only one, maybe two such Guyanese servants? Surely, we have more who can give more, do more?
Sincerely,
GHK Lall
