Help need, explanation appeal

Jul 12, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

The Celestial Chinese came out in full force to make their position absolutely clear about corruption: zero tolerance. The best I can say to that is that I must be at the opera. But there it is, while I am having great difficulty recalling when Communists anywhere have ever spoke to truth, even partial ones.
I regret that my net covers the like of such heroic figures of yore as Cheddi Jagan, Janet Jagan, and those now making the news. But for the Chinese to step before the public and declare that there are incorruptible, they don’t do business in such sleazy ways, I think distils to a matter of understanding.

Do these good folks really know what incorruptibility is all about? What is the definition and the wholeness of the arcs that it covers? I have severe doubts, and the best that I can come up with for what the Chinese put on the table about corruption is what our own dear President Ali says where he is on transparency. For him secrecy is the highest aspiration, reflection, and expression of transparency, and I wonder who has taught whom, who has been the better student, the Chinese or the Guyanese head of state. As should be obvious, I am in the dark here, and some light would help lead me to the same pathways that these fine folks walk.

Similarly, a short while ago, the Hon Minister with responsibility for Finance in the Office of the President (my God! I hope that I have that right) said in the most glowing terms how his PPP Government is totally against corruption, which sounds eerily like ‘zero tolerance’ now the new Maoist mantra of the Chinese. I have three things to say on this symphony from the good doctor whose bedside manner is so charming that it makes me think of the cat and bird. I know that he knows his numbers, but I didn’t realise that his skills included that of a cartoonist. Clearly, he spent too much time in that den of iniquity in the Pacific called the Maldives. It was time well spent, since it is not too distant from the South China Sea, which fits all these inspiring public postures about corruption into a neat, closed circle.

He learned from the masters of the corruption arts, and now the finance fakir comes to this backward place to make rings around the poor, untutored citizens of this country. Talking about making rings around the gullible, will somebody explain to me why the ring of roses about this minister’s official portfolio and designation? Why go through all those syntactic loops and hoops? And while at it, why can’t this PPP Government and its leaders face the facts, and tell some truth for once? If they just must go to these lengths, then make it official: Minister with responsibility for Finance in the Office of the Vice President, who himself, miracle of miracles, swears that he, too, is untainted and incorruptible? Please pardon my naiveté and stupidity in forgetting that the Office of the Vice President is the Office of the President. Now, I beg not to be dragged into any controversy about de jure and de facto, and so forth. Now for my point, one final corruption hurrah.

Since all these beautiful people, men of rare honour-the Chinese Embassy and Communist Party, His Excellency President Dr. Ali, the Hon. Vice President, and the Hon. Finance maestro-all attest to unprecedented and unparalleled incorruptibility, then how is that this lovely country has so much corruption? At every layer? And whether real or perceived? Something is falling apart here, and like I said I really do need help. The problem is that I do not know how much, with so much going on here. Never forget something: I know corruption and corrupt people when I see them. I can smell them, taste them, recognise them. For that I thank Forbes Burnham and Wall Street hustlers; they were none smoother, slicker than them. Period.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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