Exec. Director Parsram – a gentle profile

Jul 03, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard Truths by GHK Lall

Kaieteur News – “The price that good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men” (Plato).  I think that Guyana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA Executive Director, Mr. Khemraj Parsram, qualifies to be a good man, an honest officer of this Republic.  By some curious contortion, Mr. Parsram may think that what he is doing is good for Guyana, representative of the best of his mind, the firmest of his convictions.  Indeed, good men can deteriorate to that state of forced self-indulgence; of seeing themselves in the best possible light, even when their world is layered by darkness.  It is my belief, my regrettable public offering today, to share that Mr. Parsram has treated himself rather lavishly.

He is entitled.  But for himself only.  Certainly not, when the stakes are so high, the odds so low, and the bold men and women in this country are so few.  Mr. Parsram, where are you?  Guyana needs a strong and independent and fearless EPA head, as never before in its spotted existence.  This country’s skin covering is so speckled and spotted that it makes an African leopard look like a Siberian polar bear.  The arrival of oil and Exxon did that to this country.  There is appreciation that Mr. Parsram, as a senior public servant has his orders to follow.  But I take the liberty of informing him that there are some orders that just cannot be obeyed.  I hesitate to think that the partisan has taken over the EPA boss’ intellect, that his conscience has become a motel for all kinds of strange creatures.  But there comes that time when each one of us should have those long, ponderous moments.  That is, when the conscience stands like a Nuremberg Tribunal.  I refuse to judge Mr. Parsram.  The onus is on his head to find good grounds either to condone his actions, or to condemn himself.  My hands are washed.  There is the insight that he has been given a bag of snakes to sell one by one to the Guyanese people, but all the while pretending that they are pigeons.  He can have that job.  He can delight in his loyalty.  He can soothe himself to sleep at night taking great comfort that he has served well, as asked, as expected.  But I raise my voice: Mr. Khemraj Parsram cannot be sleeping on the job during his waking hours.  If that sounds disrespectful, or possessing a harsh strain, apologies are already on the way.

No EIA is not the way for almost everything, sir.  If there are no assessments, then what reassurances are given to Guyanese?  The watchmen of the night do walk around from time to time, peer through the fence, kick a loose brick, and comfort themselves that all is well on their watch.  When it rains in squalls, they may shrink from doing duty, but that is when the resolve must be at its highest.  No issues with the lack or quality of offshore controls.  No concerns about the risk matrices being bent and stretched to up the daily production numbers.  No skepticisms with an old hand at the oil game, and its reports.  And as rolled around its pretty little finger by Exxon.  C’mon, Executive Director Parsram!  Even if it were IBM or Berkshire Hathaway or the US White House itself in operation in Guyana, things can’t be taken for granted as they have been.  Instead of falling apart and rolling over, how about some pushback?  The EPA is Guyana’s first line of defense, its most senior guardsman and protector-in-chief.  Unlike the GRA on the back end, the EPA is on the frontlines.  The EPA is Guyana’s strike force, ad Mr. Parsram must be Guyana’s Delta commando.  Calling, Mr. Parsram!  Calling, Mr. Parsram!  What happened to the executive director?  To where did he disappear?  Has anyone seen him lately?  Has he been on the job, and at full attention?

When Guyana’s EPA is made to look like a pocketbook poodle, then its head is the first official that diminishes before the eyes, loses any kind of luster.  Do this most critical, most sensitive, of jobs in the right way, or do the right thing, Mr. Parsram.  Resign!  Mr. Routledge has made road kill of our political leaders across this land.  Now, look at what they have done to the lead sentinel, the EPA.  Over at the Hague, they are talking about war crimes in Tel Aviv.  There are different kinds of crimes being committed right here, and there is nobody who knows that more than Executive Director Parsram.  What is thrown overboard by the galleon.  Who is thrown under the bus day after day in Guyana.  Guyana is no longer a country, but a comic book version of one.   I call on Mr. Parsram, I call on every Guyanese, to appreciate why the highest and greatest and noblest among us is reduced to a scalded cat, a nervous puppy, on Thursday afternoons.  And also pathetic apologists in the corner of those who are rank exploiters, worse despoilers.  Nicolas Maduro was more scorching: apologists in the pocket.

I hold Khemraj Parsram aloft, think no less of him as a man, a brother.  But not as an officer.  Don’t do this to Guyanese, Executive Director.  They deserve better, the best from their gifts.

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

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• GHK Lall, Guyana, hard truths, officer, representative

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