A culture of clashing truths in Guyana

Nov 12, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

As the story goes, nymphs cannot lie for they are physically unable to, or they’re just poor liars. At least, that’s what the legends say. The historical (heroic) Presidential Commission of Inquiry continues, and slowly but surely, information is being disseminated to reveal who lied and who didn’t (among other things) and what incurred that shouldn’t, during the 2020 Guyana General and Regional Elections. The bomb hoax has a melody of its own. Will the Chairperson of GECOM pen the lyrics of her trauma when the ‘kidnap/captive/duress/ imprisoned/seclusion/intimidation’ drama was playing out?

Mahatma Gandhi was idolized for ‘truth and non-violence.’ He also posited about truth demarcating a distinction between ‘Relative Truth’ as a conception and ‘Absolute Truth’ being the eternal principle. Few did uphold the law while others carried out the work of the devil. There were those who preferred to resign rather than stoop to orders commandeered by the ‘domestic master.’ What’s good for the goose was not good for the gander. While one GECOM official was allowed to video freely, others were denied that privilege. Is it a fact or fiction that a criminal usually returns to the scene of a crime? A GECOM official incidentally, accidentally or coincidentally returned to the arena where the assumed bomb was supposed to be found! Why demand everyone else to clear the building and deny the chosen few the safety for their lives? Mischief was certainly a foot to make hay while the sun shines!

As the week delved into the deviousness and dangerous disasters designed by the PNC to destabilize a nation from democracy, national, regional and international observers must be thanking their stars that they were able to survive a volcanic situation which could have erupted in a more dangerous situation. They may have avoided physical encounter but they certainly were bombarded with the severity of scathing remarks. Former Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Karen Cummings from the then PNC Government in 2020, had threatened to revoke the accreditation of the members of the International Observer Mission. Head of the Commonwealth Observer Mission in Guyana, former Barbados Prime Minister, the late Owen Arthur, had solid reasons to confront her and object to her threat. He announced in an annoyed and angered mode, “I speak on behalf of the Commonwealth, the largest organization of people in the world, and I am not going to have, not me, the Commonwealth disrespected by a threat to take away the accreditation.” The goodly gentleman then offered to return his badge involuntarily to Dr. Cummings.

Imagine, the PNC led by former President David Granger, ran on an election campaign’s slogan in 2020 which proclaimed “honesty, decency and integrity!” Which one of those words ascribe to the descriptive elements of high morality? Coming into power by a questionable 1 seat majority in 2015, the first thing they did was to give their members in Parliament a 50 percent salary increase. The Public Service had to accept between 10 percent and 1 percent. Coming into the first taste of oil revenue in 2016, the US$18 million as a signing bonus was hidden and remained undeclared until the PNC was confronted and then had to admit to stashing the money in a secret bank account. The PNC lost to a vote of no-confidence in 2018 thus paving the way for election but prolonged the issue. The PPP/C Party took the PNC Government 3 times to the CCJ and on each occasion, the Granger led government lost their case. As a “caretaker Government,” the PNC Government went on a rampage and raped the Treasury, committed fraudulent transactions and misappropriated funds. The PNC Party was always known to lie and not capable of telling or handling the truth.

Yours respectfully,

Jai Lall

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