In this country to be unethical is applauded

Jun 08, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

British PM, Boris Johnson, is politically alive. Barely. Still. It is a tribute to his more principled Conservative party colleagues that he has been brought to the brink of dethronement. I am not surprised because it is my position that there are still a few honourable men and women around in politics. Certainly not in Guyana, please don’t search for them here, and that holds for both PPP and PNC. There, I said it, and I stand by it.

In the aftermath of the PM’s no confidence survival, an English politics professor noted that, “Johnson’s such an accomplished escape artist, and his colleagues so cravenly and cowardly that he you can’t rule him out living to fight another day” (NY Times June 6). “Escape artist” and “colleagues so cravenly and cowardly” all have ringing application to Guyana and Guyanese politicians, be they PPP luminaries or PNC ones. I struggle to find exception, and to those I add the great majority of my fellow Guyanese, inclusive of church, media, professionals, and ethicists. I appreciate that I have left out many categories of locals, but these lay the table, give an inkling.

The straw that broke the mulish defensive doggedness of other honourable members of the Commons was not Mr. Johnson’s vacillations, or his sloth, or his mysteries. It was about rum drinking, of all things. I think that double standards, hypocrisy, Houdini antics, and incorrigibility. All pushed his presence in British history to the precipice. If he were in Guyana, he would be cheered. For this is a society with politicians (and citizens) mostly lacking in morals, integrity, and basic honesty, even decency. I encourage my fellows, all fine folks, to recall a boy (a man, really) named Su; about leadership lies; about leadership camouflages using the English Language as props; and the pandemic of perversities and profanities, aka corruptions, that is now the central characteristic of both PPP and PNC politicians and their affiliates.

In this country to be unethical is applauded; to be a thief is a badge of honour; and to be a liar and fraud and con artist are allencomia of Olympian virtue. Our political players live all those attributes, almost all of them; this is what passes for governance and leadership. Think of that Integrity Commission that was just appointed; nice people all, I am sure, but a chair with uneven legs, and not four also? I strain to discern what could be expected of such a pantheon of what passes for heroes here. My best regards are tendered, but I forewarn: expectations are a little on the low side. Start out right and there will be light; start with a blight, and there is no fight for what is right. It is how things come full circle.

I return to jolly olde England, and the thought comes: imagine that there is a country where rum drinking can nearly dispatch a Prime Minister to the exits! Forget about Brexit and COVID-19, and all the rest. Focus on that one, please, every thinking and still conscientious citizen of this country. Not to forget, this is not a country, so let’s get that idea out of our silly noggins. Look at this den of make-believe political Spartans (and their gangs), and what we have are those rigging elections, and those rigging governance with bluffs, fluffs, and the stuffs of utter stupidity, total cupidity, and universal culpability. We are so far gone in this country politically that to shake hands is a sin, to extend an invitation is heresy. By the way, I speak not only of a birthday party, but of the party in government and its two-headed rigmarole. I wonder what they would have done with this monstrosity in ye olde Albion over there.

Here the reality is Shakespeare’s (some say Dumas) “one for all and all for one.” It is how cult leaders are made and mythologized. And how one, in turn, ensure that they all help themselves, so that nobody can talk, or dare to vote against. The thought comes of Lord’s and Wimbledon; leave this place to the panjandrums and grand poohbahs prancing about.

Sincerely,

GHK Lall

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