ERC’s national conversation, at odds over dialogue conditions, the elderly violated and houses of worship desecrated

Mar 14, 2021 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

By GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – I begin with the needed and the encouraging: the ERC announcement of another segment in its ‘national conversation.’ We talk a lot amongst ourselves about who baad and who wraang. This is the opportunity and forum for all citizens to share ideas on what could lift us out of the quicksand of racial intolerance and social tenseness, and the hatred spawned by both. We all did wrong. All of us have contributed; every single one of us. Now, if we can start with that cleanest of slates, then we may (just) be able to find a way forward, give ourselves a glimmer of hope, pave environment and atmosphere for a different way of life in this Guyana that we all say we love so much. If we really do, then like a doting mother (who ‘aint gat baad bush fuh truh weh’), we have the moment to articulate what should be done and could be done to revisit, revise, reconcile, and be reinvigorated. It starts with me. It continues with you. Yes! YOU.
It is encouraging that both His Excellency, President Irfaan Ali, and Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Joseph Harmon, have agreed that they are each open to dialogue. They are both, however, at loggerheads over what should come before (“President, Opposition Leader at odds on conditions for dialogue” KN March 7). I understand that the table must be laid prior, so as to extract the maximum from the moment, which I hope would be illuminating and inspiring in the developments that they could bring Guyanese. Still, I register my difference over them being “at odds” even before a syllable of dialogue, a morsel of thought, has gone into something that many be rightly called dialogue. That is, actually speaking to each other, the leaders of these two major groups that represent the dreams and aspirations of approximately 80 plus percent of the Guyanese population. If they can’t even agree on speaking, then what can they agree on? What could come out of such discussions? Immediately preceding this section, there is my support for the ERC’s continuing national conversation, and the channel for more and fuller citizen participation. If we are asking, through the ERC, for a national conversation, then our political heads have to take the lead in doing so between themselves. It would be a most encouraging signal. It could set tone and state of mind that we need this urgently, and we need it now. And that we need all to be part of it; not apart from it, but of it and involved in that national conversation. To our head of state and opposition head, my position is simple: let there be no preconditions. None whatsoever! There could be no better sign of good faith and goodwill.
I regret that the deeply disturbing must now follow. Who is immune? Who is spared? It seems to be happening ever so frequently nowadays. To elaborate, the elderly are attacked and assaulted in their little places of abode. The latest from early last week is of a couple, 70 plus and 80 plus, whose home was broken into at 3 o’clock in the morning, with them being terrorized within an inch of their lives. The husband lives with limited mobility. What happened brings shuddering and recoiling; of wondering who is next, and where next, in this land that is swamped by acute serial banditry in high places and low places. The criminal handiwork is from men in collars and cuffs, as well as from those in head caps and face covers. Fear stalks this place.
And that is what visited three churches in Linden with property carted off. Thankfully, no one was injured or traumatized. But what and where is off-limits? Is there anything that is considered sacred anymore? My belief is that there is very little, if any. It is what alarms. Alarms that while this rages, we war endlessly with one another. May tomorrow be more encouraging, less disturbing.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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ERC’s national conversation, at odds over dialogue conditions, the elderly violated and houses of worship desecrated

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