GECOM’s announcement of a non-decision

Apr 20, 2020 Editorial

The email sent out from GECOM on Friday last would have been better if it had stayed in the ‘pending’ or ‘draft’ folders.
It should have stayed there until more specific details were incorporated and then ready for dissemination. Some of those details would represent, in essence, specific answers to the questions and issues that have plagued Guyanese, for 48 days as of today.
Instead, what was embodied in the email bordered on the unreal and the contemptuous.
Sometimes if there is nothing sensible to offer, it is better to keep quiet, and be thought of as foolish. For what came from GECOM was the equivalent of an opening of the mouth and proving how disoriented and disconnected is the mind of its leadership (how foolish and lost it is) in relation to its obligations to public and principle. And further, how disparaging it is towards the tense expectations of Guyanese voters, which are dashed on an uninterrupted basis.
As identified by KN in its April 18 headline, some specifics would have gone a far way in leading citizens and watchers to believe that tangible progress is being made. And that Elections 2020 could be closer to being put to bed, to its final long delayed and overdue resting place, if that could be conceived after all that has happened. This thing has a life of its own, more than a centipede it would seem, for every time there is the sense that there is inching up another rung towards closure, there is falling back through the disingenuous, the disturbing, and the dangerous.
To put matters kindly, the Chair and the Secretariat’s senior officers make themselves appear completely compromised at the worst time. It has been an inexplicable and inexcusable interval of time, which leaves this society on tenterhooks, raises many alarms, and fuels many pent-up fears and suspicions. The worst is imagined. The Chair, by her actions and inactions, by her words and muteness, and by this latest email development (an insult, if there ever was one) looks more than distressed and disembodied; she seems torn among a number of options, none of them honourable or wholesome. To be very candid, the Chair looks as though she is marshaling and deploying intellect and wit, and the knowledge and skills garnered from long experience, to deliver the unacceptable and the treacherous.
From our perspective, it is as if she is bending over backwards, buying (or wasting) time, and probing for any sliver of an opening to ram the unthinkable through the process over which she stands as the final arbiter. We have thought long and hard before using a word that is powered by commonsense and current circumstances, and which keeps repeating itself, as it flashes before conscience and consciousness. That word is deceptive. And as most should have little difficulty tracing either to its source or wherever it leads, the deceptive has as its main characteristics mostly patented trickeries, the controversially disturbing, and the pervasively problematic.
We cannot help thinking this way and ending up in this sorriest of states. For this is where all the shenanigans and tomfooleries point with irrefutable substance, with powerful wisdom. For this is how the dots of March 3 and thereafter connect and to where the trajectory of each incredible development from GECOM’s governing brain trust has compelled.
There is no benefit of any doubt left to extend to the leadership of GECOM. Regrettably, at the head of the list is the Chairperson in whom trust is exhausted, and confidence is at such a low ebb, that there is nothing left to give and nowhere left for us to go.
It is unfortunate that the senior management of GECOM and its Chair have backed themselves into a dishonourable corner with no escape route. When both retreated from their responsibilities via resorting to the chicaneries witnessed, then we, too, have no alternative but to call matters as they are. This is necessitated by the overpowering accumulation of failures, and the sheer force of circumstances.
How much longer will this charade continue? What new Machiavellian ploys remain to be employed? We urge the Chair: do the right thing. Take the lead for the right way forward.

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News