H@rd Truths By GHK Lall – The choir can sing, other messages must continue

Jun 29, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – I clear the air on what troubles some Guyanese brothers and sisters.

After an absence, I shared in the David Hinds Show on Tuesday evening. Three strange things resulted.  First, I am “famous” to use Dr. Hinds’ words, considering daily outpourings from various sources concerning writings. Second, I am anti-American.  Third, that US Ambassador Lynch was insulted.  The things we learn, the places we go, the people we encounter….

No media space will be misused or profaned by attacking those attacking. It is anyone’s right to react and write about my contributions. I know not, care not, it matters not, what is said or written. I defend their right to do so. Fellows must decide between truths and falsehoods, contortions and convictions, the fresh air of higher ground or identification with the slime and grime of the cesspool. When speciousness or vileness becomes the norm, the favour will not be returned; I regret that there is scant interest in what is written, or who writes for whom. Confidence reigns in positions, truths, environment’s realities, and unself-serving objectives. It is heartening that the good folks at Freedom House and countless government offices are addicted to the little morsels presented. Somebody is reading; and regardless how partisanship dominates, there are anxieties and alarms over real truth, real light, and real substance in Guyana today.

It is a good place to be, where there is the confidence that the offerings made, the work being done, resonates with those in government, those in highways and byways of a Guyana torn, bitter, rendered rancorous and vicious. In those, of those, and with those, there will be no part. No interest in the retaliatory, no point to prove, no desire to get even, no score to settle.  Malice will not attract the same from this corner, through semanticalproxies or cousins.  Higher ground is what is pursued.  God, we need it, how Guyana needs it.  In sum, it is a great place to be, and one not traded for any other, such as barbs that brutalize, arrows that assault, or the recriminatory that does one thing only: drags all down.  Partisans are entitled to their fanatical state; they should ensure that there is purity to it.  There is absolutely no return in waging war against each other.  Exclude, please; great comfort results.

Regarding being anti-American, my position is unchanged, possesses in it own transcendent authority: I do not love America less; I love Guyana more.  It feels good repeating.  Incidentally, it is the American Way to parse through thickets of unpleasantness, to probe beneath uncertainties, to sift through contradictions that cripple.  If President Ali wears see-through clothes, then that must be identified, publicized.  I will.  If Vice President Jagdeo represents the palest imitation of truth (at best), then only broadcast will help him rectify the void, lighten the darkness.  If Opposition Leader Norton personifies the hollow and unpersuasive, my duty is to point to what strengthens.  In the instances of my three cherished brothers, I serve them and Guyana better by speaking in my own voice, instead of simply echoing the trilling and warbling of their thickly populated choirs.

Weigh thisnugget: decades ago, to be pro-American meant to be pro-Burnham.  Not Drexel Burnham, but LFS Burnham.  To be anti-American meant being pro-PPP.  Was Burnham right and Jagan wrong?  I will be All-American (pro-Exxon plus) when fairness, rightness, and justness become tangible Guyanese benefits. If that is unamerican, then I stand properly accused.  I owe America for enlightening powerfully, strengthening immensely the courage to die for convictions.  Matters may terminate there.  I stand unmoved.  Until recently, the claim was made that writings were too heavy, high-level, sophisticated.  Simplicity followed, now all understand.  Thanks, everyone.  Be careful what is asked for; revelations, questions, positions open Guyanese eyes.

Concerning insulting Ambassador Lynch, clearly desperation is running amok, hair being yanked out of heads in PPP land.  If that is reverted to, comforts, then I fear that new bottoms are reached daily, then treasured.  My position is that Excellency Lynch has represented American interests magnificently.  Thus, Excellency Lynch instigated the drenching rains that inflict severe droughts on poor, anguished Guyanese.  Like me.  Whether economically, psychologically, or spiritually, Excellency Lynch’s sublime handiworks have impacted and impaired the peace and promise of most Guyanese.  Like me, again.  I shrink not from saying that, writing that, again and again.  Ambassador Lynch will get her Guyanese medal (maybe even a statue) and her American rewards for a job done incomparably well.  If that is unamerican, I’m guilty.  Moreover, if that is insulting to my American sister (sister, not superior), then we have not only lost any claims to credibility; we have also lost our way.  We have lost our place on the pedestal that is occupied by people of truth and responsibility, of honesty, of patriotic duty.

Regardless, the choirs of the PPP (and PNC) must be given the widest latitude to broadcast their choruses.  A Grecian tragedy embodying poignant Guyanese dirges, it is.  I regret how far we have come, how we may now have nowhere left to go.  What will we sing about then?  Who will be targeted, attacked, desecrated then?  Who is left?

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• continue, evening, GHK Lall, Guyanese, H@rd Truths

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