Response to Mr. Sankat

Jun 04, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

I refer to the letter by Mr. Navin Sankat titled, “GHK Lall should provide evidence of his claims of ‘manipulations and massive cheating’” (KN June 3). I am trying to shake this habit of responding to such invitations as I express appreciation to Mr. Sankat for the time spared for, and interest in, things regarding elections Guyana, which is another personally troubling trait I seek (unsuccessfully I should add) to discard. The following should be helpful in assisting Mr. Sankat to clear the air, should he be so inclined.
First, Mr. Sankat must be much more of an alien than me (more hardheaded, I would hope not) to be seeking the enlightenment of ‘evidence’ at this belated and unholy hour. From the very first time I heard of it, I said this cannot be so, should not be so, and it must not be made to stand. But there it stood in unabashed glee. It is the situation of a country of approximately 750,000 citizens boasting of the inconceivable. Meaning, that there is an eligible voters list, or OLE as it is grandly labelled, of some 630,000 inhabitants. Please forgive the approximations. I will not ask, how this could be so, but simply tender that it boggles my limited mind to absorb the now established, but not universally accepted, reality of upwards of 80% of Guyana’s population could be listed as ‘eligible’ under any regime. That is, a robust, comprehensive, and cleanly filtering regime. I think that this statistic speaks for itself, and should serve to persuade Mr. Sankat, that all is not so well in this regard. In fact, whatever it is that obtains, it is egregiously inaccurate and unacceptable to me and numerous others. And unlike the many others, I no longer have any warm attachment to the proceedings, beside the civic and the clinical. To arrive at such a number and percentage called for much craftiness towards studious preparations on the ground, the related sophistications of which I confess to lack. But there things stand nit as silhouette, but as monument worshipped by some, despised and profaned by others.
Second, and as if to furnish corroboration of my position, the well-intended, but most untimely and most menacing, house to house registration process to amend was aborted in quick order. Though there may have been much to dispute, I am constitutionally unconditioned to comprehend why anyone, or any group, would object to what was a disinfesting and sanitizing process. Not like an ineffective cosmetic exercise on a long unbathed body, but a truly washing and ventilating exercise that went way below the skin of the numbers and all that went in those. In my admittedly narrow outlook, I would have thought that the rational and practical thing to do was to probe for thread snakes before they grew and accumulated into full-fledged serpents. In other words, get to the bottom of the OLE snake pit. To pursue and settle for the opposite, as was energetically done, reeks of fear, of cover up, and of continuing the darkness that hung over the whole contest from the inception and which is now here to stay.
I regret that we did not have the needed examination back then, when it was absolutely relevant and necessary, instead of allowing it to be abruptly curtailed. I regret that Mr. Sankat found it necessary to be reminded, or to be enlightened, as to the existence of this beast and all the associated passions about its vital statistics. Try as I might, and as much as I may wish, none of this is going to go away. Not now, not after recount, not whatever the aftermath emerges to be. With regard to any additional evidence that Mr. Sankat may need, such will be provided by circumstances to come, which just could remind us in the worst way possible of what we did suppress in our short-term thinking and to our peril. I fear that what Mr. Sankat may easily dismiss would not be so lightly ignored by those to whom it is a matter of life and death. To Mr. Sankat, I extend every assurance of my best.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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