De facto unity governance

Feb 21, 2021 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

For no reason at all, something made me recollect the tensions and traumas of the 2020 elections: the long delays, the social media nuclear fallouts, the racial passions stoked in the trenches. And I wonder today, as to the purpose of it all. I say this, because look at where we are, with what amounts to a de facto unity governance structure, compliments of two of Guyana’s stellar sons, the Hon. Vice President and the just as Hon. Leader of the Opposition. It only took three decades and some three years, but today the PPP and PNC are as inseparable as one, and look what it took to fuse them in the manner that they are.
The irony is that it took oil – greasy, slick, and monstrously serpentine in its fearsome specter and shadow – to bring the PPP and PNC together in the classic inseparability of Siamese Twins. The bewildered political and racial children, who supported both parties so lovingly, ferociously, and fervently look on with both fascination and deep distaste at this new political hybrid, the handiwork of their modern father figures. Sorry, no women at the heights. This hybrid creature is straight out of their nightmares, but there it is, and it is being tended carefully, cooperatively, and in a way that speaks so fulsomely of the bloodlines of the two political parents. It is of the rich seductions of oil that have made majestic men from Africa, other Third World countries, and elsewhere slide all the way to Switzerland. And as if to prove that we are quick learners, Guyana’s Vice President and Opposition Leader (with timely assistance from surrounding casts) have taken a page, many chapters, from the playbook of other leaders, to show the whole world that they got an oil game going that is as good as any from anywhere and anytime, in the sordid history of this most devilishly enchanting commodity.
As I examine all this, and reflect on where this leads, I peer into my lexicon for the most fitting description of these two smartly, coolly operating political stewards of Guyana’s wealth. The best I come up with, after lengthy and challenging consideration, is that both the Vice President and the Leader of the Opposition are true Guyanese; that is, great exemplars of what is now settled culture where matters of principle and moral certitude are involved. They cannot be bettered. If anyone was licking their lips in anticipation of the down and dirty, I regret having to disappoint with the bland, the somewhat cryptic, and which leaves so much untouched and unanswered. Just to set the bitter partisans and the oil-driven hopes of impoverished brethren at ease, I began by uttering incantations with such glowing tributes as honest and honourable, truthful and ethical, but I got sidetracked, since I ran out of material and steam, which I chalk up to the nature of the territory. I confess that enduring focus, especially with princely (think literature) leadership subjects, has become increasingly detestable; attention span fading. I note, however, that professionals from the opposition’s public service stronghold are kicked out one by one, and the group’s leader is as serene as a supertanker (loaded, of course). And as the billions for COVID-19 cash climbs, he is just as unmoved. And while the Vice President’s clandestine exploits with crude continue, the Opposition Leader is even more silent. It takes a lot to keep certain men quiet, but there it is, and here we are in the joys of a true one-party state, made up of the oneness of likeminded PPP and coalition leaders, where the two at the top are one for the other and both for themselves only. What a smooth start to His Excellency’s ‘One Guyana’ programme!
And that is what the unity governance apparatus concocted – sorry, constructed – by Guyana’s two most powerful political leaders has come to represent in the rich darkness of its essence, the prosperity of its personal promises. The question is for whom? Though others have surrendered country, citizen, and character to oil temptations, I have not. And I am mighty pleased to say that such has not touched the top, which is usually the first to fall prey to the pathological greed that oil unleashes. Well done, gents! How about some more of these rulership manufactures?

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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