This is what the honest and fearless do

Mar 16, 2021 Editorial

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Kaieteur News – The news from New York is all over, with the media having a field day. The state’s Democratic Governor, Andrew Cuomo, is on the ropes and being pummelled from all sides, and from the sound of things, there are neither allies nor neutrals to be found in his corner anymore. From all indications, he cuts an increasingly isolated figure left to fend for himself and dig himself out of the hole that he created all on his own. Things are so outrageously bad, so politically indefensible, that some of the more influential members of his own party are either intensifying the pressures on him or abandoning him altogether.
His follies and failures can be summed up in two words: sexual harassment. As the revelations mount, and numbers increase, it might be still better to label him a serial sexual predator (alleged). In the world in which we live in today, and the corporate and political worlds, any such accusation is the equivalent of the kiss of death. It is goodbye to career, and it is as good as over as far as those one-time aspirations to national leadership all the way to the White House goes. Such was the case not too long ago on the part of Mr. Cuomo, when he was widely discussed as among the most high-profile frontrunners for the presidential contest of 2024.
In the space of a few short weeks, a total of seven women (so far) have come forward with claims of sexual harassment and workplace humiliations by the New York governor. These are credible sounding women, with Mr. Cuomo offering lamer and lamer defences by the hour. His multiple instances of misconduct are so unpardonable, and his positions are so weak that even his own are heading for the exits, and at every layer. In this there is example and lesson for Guyanese political figures, particularly the senior ones from both sides of the divide. The first lesson is know when to say when; as in too far, too much, and too indefensible. Or to put in another way, a more abrupt and jarring way: there is the door, get going, get out, and don’t look back. The problem is that level of leadership is rarely, if ever, demonstrated here.
To be sure, the political sexual culture here is a bit more nuanced and benign; tolerable might be the word for what is an open secret. It is considered part of the camaraderie and the give and take of getting closer to the top or, at least, to get one’s way and dream fulfilled. Women do not dare to protest, for then they might as well head for the turnstile and the quick downward journey into obscurity. Thus, it is stooping to conquer, and keeping everything in the family and under wraps. It is: no objection to advances, no rejection of visions.
But this is not what is in motion in the United States in the agitated and embarrassed ranks of the Democratic Party. Instead of the party basking in its gruelling retake of the White House, and savouring the afterglow of its narrow congressional triumph in the American Rescue Plan, it has to deal with the ballooning fallouts of Mr. Cuomo’s alleged sexual peccadilloes. It now seems to be just a matter of time before that qualifier ‘alleged’ will be gone. And that is exactly where some of his more upset and politically astute political friends are also at, as in gone. They are rushing forward to throw their next presidential flag carrier overboard.
First, there were the more assertive members of New York’s delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives. Names like “Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jerry Nadler, and other members” who called on Governor Andrew Cuomo to resign” (Bloomberg March 12). The word from that same Bloomberg coverage from late last week was that “at least nine of the Democratic House members from New York” are “urging Cuomo to step down.” The tide has transformed into a tsunami, with Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand have added their voices to the chorus insisting upon the embattled, but still balefully defiant, Cuomo to do the right thing, the only thing left, which is to depart. It is a sign of how matters have deteriorated, for the two senators were first calling for an independent investigation, but both have now thrown in the towel in disgust, with what is politically astute, and from what is politically distasteful (New York Times, March 12).
As we consider this, it conveys how the real-world functions, the standards that it now maintains, is forced to maintain, because of environmental pressures. When this is compared to how our leaders protect crooked comrades, and look the other way when party rogues are exposed for obvious wrongdoings, it tells us how far we are behind, and how much will be done, to defend those who trample upon the trust of citizens, and those who misuse their powerful offices for personal gain. We are good at saying all the right things, but we are way better at stopping right there and doing absolutely nothing. Failing comrades are protected; wretched citizens are on their own. When honest and fearless leadership is needed to make right wrongs, they are content to add to wrongs.

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