The President must know right from wrong, and the courage to speak against wrongs

Oct 30, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,

I read letters and listened to comments by people claiming and predicting what the voting pattern of Guyanese would be. One such writer asseverated that President Ali is best suited to change the existing voting pattern and implicitly suggested that concerns by Norman Browne, that the PNC will not dominate in Linden because of the good works of President Ali, can happen, and is based on the belief that handouts and sweet words, as practiced by the old plantocracy and our erstwhile masters, can purchase loyalty and fool certain folks that you love them. It is known that, after being sworn in August 2020, I took a principal position to support President Ali for the sake of our beloved country and our young people.

Whatever may be the thinking and aspirations of our people, human history has shown that which follows when a nation-state, as it seems to be the case in Guyana, has lost its morality or its moral sense and trampling upon those cherished values which separates civilized folks from the barbarians.When there is no justice for all, and the society has lost  its sense of decency, when decorum and diplomacy are damned, it is the beginning of the collapse of cherished institutions and society as a whole.When the Leader of the Nation, and in our case a President, seems not to know the difference between right and wrong, and the line separating good from evil is blurred, we are in deep trouble.

The recent revelation buzzing around our Diplomat assigned to a very important State, India, is kept in his office for over fourteen months, after behaving in a despicable manner does not speak well for the President and his leadership. High Commissioner Charandass Persaud’s vulgar assault on an Indian lady, Ms. Sonya Ghosh in New Delhi, India has already been commented on by Ms. Amanza Walton Desir, the Red Thread Organization and the editorials of the independent media. It is unnecessary for me to deal in detail with this alleged incident save to observe that he was appointed by President Ali.

I heard about this incident some months ago, but said nothing because efforts to have this sad and sorry saga confirmed proved fruitless, save to think that the PPP has a proclivity to name persons of questionable character to serve in India.On this question of identifying people to serve in key posts, those who think Ali is the right man for the job, should tell us why he has not yet had the killer of ‘Paper Shorts,’ brought to justice, but that unsolved crime is no more than the tip of the iceberg.

If President Ali is the man for the job, why did it take him so long to recall Mr. Charandass Persaud? If President Ali is speaking the truth, then he should dismiss his security personnel, including his Advisors on security and the top echelon of our Foreign Service including staff at our High Commission Office in New Delhi, India.It is unbelievable that this incident reported by the aggrieved lady is not brought to the President’s attention but I must believe, and I do, the President and by extension his advisors and his Minister of Foreign Affairs, that they were all unaware of this sorry state of affairs. I say this because the President, his Advisors, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, are all honourable men and not capable of saying things that are untrue.

We have the Vice President publicly undertaking to make public contracts in the mining sector, which has so far failed to deliver on those promises, and there is a long list of improprieties, monies being doled out with little or no accountability- Sugar workers, Mon Repos farmers, etc. How can we forget that a prominent Attorney-at-Law, apparently with good contacts, called a Special Constabulary Officer, Guyana Police Force, “a black monkey.” The Police received a report and did nothing and the recent arrest of a female, Attorney-at-Law, Tamieka Clarke. The female Special Constabulary Police Officer brought private charges but the DPP has withdrawn those charges and yet we hear from the President or his Government “respect females.” We need a Leader who is strong and willing to say what is right and the courage to tell those who are wrong, that they are wrong. We have seen how new found wealth can be a burden on our people, instead of a blessing. The difference has always been how determined the Head of State is to maintain standards and to deal promptly with those who violate the values we seek to uphold. This is the challenge we face. Speak to young people, speak to really concerned Guyanese, how to deal with this is much more significant than analyzing the Afro-Indo Guyanese history of mutual suspicion and distress.

Speaking for myself, there are a number of decent, patriotic Indo-Guyanese in business and the professions. Similarly Afro, Portuguese, Chinese and Amerindian whose character gives our country hope. Race relations can shake and disturb Guyana, but injustice, condoning of immorality and ignoring indecency will not shake but shatter us to bits and it is this we must avoid. It is this, we must tell the President to deal with sooner than later, including breaking the pattern of appointing Diplomats merely because they have served the Party well or can do the dirty work.

Respectfully,

Hamilton Green

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