Now a word for opposition leaders

Jun 11, 2020 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

Recently, I reached out with a plea to the president. Today, I do the same with the three leaders of the opposition, who I recognise by name – Mr. Jagdeo, Dr. Ali, and General Philips. This may be found surprising, but I am honour bound to do so.
After all the challenges and clashes, my conclusion is that there is no such thing, in the traditional sense, of electoral triumph for them. I say this because even when there is the prospect of winning, there is losing. The hard, immovable stances are: No! Not again! Never! To cut to the quick, it is the rank essence of the power and tyranny of race-based politics. At this time, it is pointless to revisit the past and who did what. I simply say that what is present today is what matters and indicative of the prospects for the future.
As I see, hear, and sense the road ahead, a certain kind of leadership in Guyana is unacceptable. I put it on the table: PPP leadership is unacceptable. The results of the recount do not matter. We may hem and haw, dispute forever, but the bottom is this: it is seen as unthinkable and absolutely impermissible at many levels in Guyana’s political society. It is a shame that this, which is danced around, is the alpha and omega of our ideas about democracy. Does it have a thick strain of the racial about it? Without hesitation I answer: Yes!
Thus, the best that I could think of that holds some promise, some chance, for the PPP is to be part of a blend. A blended governance structure, that is. Whenever this is said, the knives come out; I speak to reality in the leadership realms of adversaries and in the deep, long trenches. The deck is stacked against the opposition party; it knows this, and rails against the injustice of it all. But this is where things stand in the simplest detail. The foreign contingents will soon be gone, then all that will be left are ourselves with the devil and the ocean for company.
I cringe and I sympathise in saying these things. I am ashamed that in this modern era, it is the best that we can be. When we use the sophistications of ethnic polarization and ethnic competition (conflict, really) and the history of slavery and sacrifice, this is where we are. No amount of careful talking, no degree of denial and dissembling, and no perfume changes the smell and stench, of the grim finality of our national political reality.
The three leaders named come with their own records, but even those pale and are not of consequence anymore. What matters today and now more than ever is this: how they look, who they are, who and what they represent, and what they excite. And after all the sidestepping and pretending, that would always be. In spite of my own personal limitations, inhibitions would be more accurate, I wish them the best, as I recognise the hand dealt and held, and which now have to be played out as the longest of homestretches emerge on the still distant horizon.
I close by saying one more thing: should any Guyanese need any interpretation of what I just wrote, then he or she is in a worst place than me. I may be burdened with too much sand in my shoes; their problem is that it blinds their eyes and ears and nostrils, too.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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