Most of the new parties leave much to be desired

Jan 11, 2020 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

Elections season may be the closest replica to Carnival that we have in this country. The new parties, a whole brigade on this occasion, came to record their presences, and to gyrate, sashay, and make fools of themselves before a disbelieving public. With few exceptions, they lack visions, substance, and programs as to what they want to be about, and how to deliver on what they think they can promise.
There is this bizarre situation where new groups camp out days in advance, as though Guyanese elections are about some Thanksgiving Day sale and rush. What the hell is going on here? This is not comedic; it is tragic and so revealing, as to where we are and the spectacles of which we make of ourselves, when we partake in such circuses.
We make a mockery of what are the serious businesses of national building and clean governance. I think this nation would prefer to be spared this kind of entertainment; it has enough indignities to deal with, as it is.
Elections season in Guyana has risen to the scene of a gruesome car wreck: everybody has to be near it, everybody has a story to tell of it, and everybody has an idea on how to get something from it. The oil – whether light, sweet crude or sour and heavier – is now the sweetest honey, the most alluring attraction that brings all and sundry from out of the woodpile.
Given them a chance and there is the heavy risk that the entire hive will be gone. Somehow, Guyana dredges up these pretenders and opportunists around these times, and more and more of them, it seems, who arrive with a trumpet blast, and only to depart with the speechlessness from political sicknesses that render them hors de combat, even before the actual battle has begun.
What did these people think they were going to win? What did they really represent? Whom do they represent? Who would give them the time of day when the initial floats and parade of their presences marched past? Sure, they drummed up some scantiness about constitution and patriotism and servanthood, but nobody gave them much regard, as the cement of credibility was so largely lacking. They held out themselves as patriots, but what have they ever given to this society? Where have they ever laid something of the self-sacrificing on the line? Or, to cut a real fine point on this, have they ever given more than they have grasped and taken?
Taking this to a different plane, what have they given in the trenches that serves as an apprenticeship, of paying dues, and of evidence of the multifaceted skills and, even more importantly, of serious, steadfast dedication to bona fide interests in serving the peoples of this country at the highest levels?
One does not turn up at Lord’s and declare that he is ready to go on the field of play and, therefore, space should be made for him. The road to that height is long and filled with trial and error, with pain and anguish, and with gaining a step and losing two. This is real life in real colour involving real people.
It cannot be any different for the cauldron and ferocious proving ground that are elections times in this country. There is so much that has to be put into the mix that there are not enough hours in the day and days in the month to put arms comfortably around what is envisioned, carefully thought out, and planned to be delivered, as in made public. And we have had little to none of such.
For what we have had is the patchwork of sound and flesh that insists on behaving and, maybe, even believing that they are God’s gift to Guyana. That has to be some strange god compared to the one that I know, and the still stranger gifts that they embody.
Those who didn’t fall by the wayside, where they belong as part of the elections’ detritus, will not last much longer. They are neither discernible nor distinctive nor as well developed as they ought to be. Just people plying in the night with hope in their hearts that somebody will listen to them, while they howl in the dark.
It appears that some of the newcomers always had a fallback option up their clever sleeves. That is, they had geared up to throw themselves at the PPP or PNC, whichever one would consent to take them, should the necessity arise; or, when that fails, merge with whoever will accommodate them. I think some of this is going to come to pass in the next few days.
So where does this leave the voters of this society? Other than to be saddled with those, who are rank opportunists, would do anything to make themselves marketable, and represent nothing but unsavory ambitions focused on the self-promoting and self-serving and self-enriching.
I think I understand why this nation is trapped and fastened where it is. With political aspirants like these, supposedly evidence of the new and fresh and wholesome, who needs saints? From which corner is lean, clean, governance going to come?
Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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