Don’t miscalculate; do what is right

Mar 20, 2020 Editorial

They are not alone, these powerful Americans protesting what is happening in the snake pit into which Guyana’s elections processes have been transformed. The Americans are not quiet or hesitant in making known where they stand on the manipulations occurring behind the scenes in our elections. As they become public before a watching and aghast populace and a diplomatically outraged world, only untold miseries are projected for this country should these wrong political mindsets and steps continue.
Through its ambassador, the United States did make its position clear: no rigging, no defrauding. Do this thing right and do it in a way that is credible and acceptable by all. As events unfolded at Gecom, before the courts, and in a tense, strung out society, it is now undeniably clear that there is no listening, no such conduct contemplated.
The coalition has engaged in verbal sword fencing, physical protesting, and judicial stonewalling, through one feeble and pathetic subterfuge after another to rearrange what looks like all but an inevitable outcome.
The Americans are having none of it and have been swift in ratcheting up in front of all, its sharp distaste for the maneuvers and machinations, which have assumed elements of the bizarre, the absolutely dumbfounding, on occasion.
It is now inarguable that the Americans have now taken loud and influential leadership via sharp condemnations of what might best be described as ongoing electoral barbarities. Others, especially the Europeans, have followed suit, along with our premier agency in the region, which is Caricom.
The leaders in neighbouring Caricom countries have to be flabbergasted at some of the recent developments that have sent agents hurrying for the exits; they cannot be other than appalled at some of the things that have distorted process and diluted spirit in what was thought to be (agreed upon) an opportunity to put things to rest by carving a believable pathway out of the crippling bog.
Their thinking has to be: surely, this cannot be happening in this day and age. Now, for all intents and purposes, and with restrained diplomatic language and protocols duly interpreted, Guyana first crept forward, and now rushes recklessly downward, through what pits it against the whole world.
It is the worst place to be, for trapped country and citizens, for unheeding leaders, for any form of constructive continuity. We cannot proceed to any place that represents what is forward and upward like this. It would be the pinnacle of miscalculation to think that, for one moment, these stratagems and ploys stand a chance of succeeding.
In view of what is massed and arrayed before this country in diplomatic and international community objection and resistance, we would have the proverbial snowball’s chance in hell at overcoming and surviving what could be unleashed against us. It does not separate nor discriminate but renders all of us vulnerable.

We at this publication are most unhappy and heavily disturbed at the many turns and twists that have characterized events since March 2nd. At one early point, there was the belief and hope that we were on the right track, because we were engaged in doing the right things for the right reasons with only a right and acceptable outcome promised. Those thoughts and sentiments of ours have since fled, leaving us unsettled and discouraged as to the way out of the morass. For whenever we comfort ourselves with the confidence that we have succeeded in extricating one foot from the quicksand, the very next step taken plunges even deeper into the unknown and dangerous.
This is the height of folly; it is foolhardy and can lead nowhere but to the most devastating of disasters, and at the worst conceivable time. Surely, we cannot be this insensible and insensitive to all that stands against us, to the consequences warned of, to the depressed state that is sure to follow.
We appeal to and urge: this is not the time for leadership hubris. This is the moment when leadership humility, leadership wisdom, and leadership maturity and cooperation must take centre stage and pull us up by the shoelaces from where we are.
The situation is very tenuously poised. Our final word is: don’t miscalculate. Do what is right.

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