A fearless public servant

Feb 03, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – There is a senior British public servant, who was compelled by the call of duty to operate under the close scrutiny of the microscope. She is an Englishwoman name Sue Gray, who was handed a daunting job. The confidence that I had placed in Sue Gray that she would rise up and deliver has since been justified.

Ms. Gray had been tasked with investigating and reporting on not one, but two powerful bosses. One is Simon Case, the premier public servant in the English system, her immediate boss; like I said, a daunting duty. And as if that was not enough, the other powerful gentlemen to be looked into and reported on is the boss of bosses in merry old England, one Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister. Her job, pursuant to its terms of reference, was to investigate, document, and deliver. That’s it. It is not to recommend anything.

Her probe encompasses what went on in repeated sessions of reported rum drinking (better make that Scotch swilling, and ale guzzling) where the Prime Minister Johnson, and other illustrious political company were present, and in possible violation of standing COVID-19 protocols. It could be the head of Boris Johnson, should Ms. Gray find smoldering cigarettes (smoking guns) that give away Mr. Johnson et al. The hounds are baying over there in the British Isles, and they scent blood. Well, the prime minister is in trouble, and his opponents are calling for his head. It is nothing else, but that he must do the honourable thing and go. The problem is that he doesn’t want to, and loyalists have surrounded him in a show of determination. For Sue Gray has delivered the goods, on what the facts and circumstances attest to, and Prime Minister Johnson looks poorer for her work. Irresponsible I would say, and that’s the least of it. There are 12 situations, which the Metropolitan Police are investigating, involving 500 pages of documents, and 300 photographs, which offer a little primer on what went on. It doesn’t look good for Mr. Johnson, which is his problem to work through, hopefully honestly. I think he should go, especially when some of his earlier statements are reconciled against what happened, what he says now.

As for Sue Gray, I would like to say that she is a true woman of rare steel; she has proven to be a fearless public servant, one of deep probity and an indomitable will, who will go wherever the road leads, regardless of who is involved. There is neither friend nor foe, only her own standing before the mirror of her ethics and conscience. I can say his with aplomb, as she has done this before in a crunch when a minister was the man erring, and that was the end of him; unlike King Charles I, he did not lose his head, but wished that he did, such was the result of Ms. Gray’s pristine handiwork. If the PM and the PS went out of bounds, she would drill for it, which she did, and found so.

Editor, I share Ms. Gray with my fellow Guyanese, to cry out and cringe over who and what we have here for top people in the strength of character and powerful ethics departments. I once thought that the head lawman was sufficiently so, only for him to lower profile when colleagues were fingered. I went my way shaken. We could use a few formidable men and women in our public service, our nationalist unit, our media army, our politics brigade also, who are of God, country, flag, cook-up rice, cassava bread, curry, and macaroni. I remind that all of those coexist alongside family. Save that in the Guyana of today, there is not one around. Nothing.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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