CJ on lowlife, VP on listening, adjusting

Oct 07, 2024 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News- Thank you, Madam Chief Justice (ag), Excellency Roxane Wilshire-George (“Chief Justice says Jagdeo “low-life” remark unacceptable; rebukes leaders for setting bad example to Guyanese” -Demerara Waves, October 02, 2024).  In the chief Justice’s own words: “This court considers the language that was used unacceptable.”  Who would disagree?  Certainly, not here.

Would the Honourable Vice President and former head of state listen, actually hear one word that the Chief Justice said?  Doubtful is the belief.  Would Guyana’s chief policymaker consent to be disciplined enough to make it a policy to do some adjusting?  Meaning, to go where he has never gone before and discover some courtesy, some standard in keeping with the dignity of his high offices, the respect due to every Guyanese?  It is my belief that Vice President does not have what it takes to examine himself, critique himself, to enhance himself.  I repeat for emphasis: he lacks that training, that will, that quality.  Worse still, he has grown to love the depth to which he descends, when he feels that the knife must be twisted to ward off opponents, those found objectionable.  The record speaks for itself.

Whch former national number one engages in repeating the scurrilousness that his own people peddle?  Which principled leader engages in his own shifty, clever slanders by innuendo with “rumours” as he admitted, while pretending to be the picture of innocent cluelessness?  He can have all the cluelessness that he plays at, when politically convenient.  Is that cluelessness or classlessness? How to think of a leader who makes rumours and “lowlife” part of a page in his own Bhagavad Gita?  Which current number two (not the biological statistical excretory activity, but the official national ranking [“fuhged aboud it”, PM Phillips]) stoops so low as to label a political opponent, and a woman at that, as a “lowlife?”  Surely, Bharat Jagdeo had to know, if not on the political score, then on the gender one?  What could be lower?  Something stirs to ask who the real lowlife is when such an occurrence bursts forth from Jagdeo with unchecked virulence, but the idea is suffocated in its tracks.

Acting Chief Justice Wilshire-George hit the nail on the head: “I want to say that the Court is concerned that increasingly political and community leaders address each other in inflammatory and/or derogatory language, setting no example on how to settle differences in a respectful manner.” Language unbecoming, example discouraging, disrespect characterizing.  Those have featured prominently when Bharat Jagdeo is at his worst. Will he change?  Time will reveal.  But Jagdeo is not the only one.  President Ali has not been about what could be considered full-out derogatory, and he must be given some credit for that little height.  But the president has still accumulated a poor reputation for volatility, hostility, and being scorchingly aggressive.  Some members of Guyana’s Opposition must tone down their remarks, public and private, because some of those are also in forbidden territory, representative of what qualifies as unacceptable.

Both to adults and children, even for many in the older group, who are not beyond mixing matters up with inflammatory language.  Leaders must lead by example.  They lead citizen towards the respectful, when they set standards.  If the fish rots from the head, then it should not surprise what happens to the rest of the body, especially at the extremities.  Follow the leader takes hold, become the norm practised without a second thought, any misgiving.  For evidence, there is what goes on within the confines of social media, what passes as civil discourse, exchange of positions.  The sheer weight of what is low, venomous, and disrespectful is enough to overwhelm.

For a more public platform, one with a national presence, maybe even an international imprint, there is Guyana’s house of the people: the National Assembly.  Is that a madhouse, an outhouse, and a bawd house, or what?  If Guyana’s parliament does not qualify, then Guyana rises to the top of any global courtesy index.  Social media is cloaked in anonymity, which many thrive on, get their licks in, without regard to what is decent or dignified, or even lawful.

Guyana’s parliament is publicity itself, yet there have these times of raw obscenity, and drenching volumes of putridity, from those making laws for Guyanese.  To compound matters, the Honourable Speaker of the House, the referee to keep everybody within reasonable bounds, has abjectly failed at maintaining order and dishing out equitable discipline.  Still worse, there has been condoning of the dirty tricksters, the revilers, and other assorted parliamentary offenders, when leaders reward them with retention and even elevation inside party congresses. Stated another way, the abusers are either protected or promoted.

Finally, the lowlife label had an early start when a leading private sector light at the time hurled that insult at Guyanese calling for better from their oil wealth.  Though lowlife doesn’t enjoy the widest circulation, it has its dangers when employed by leaders.  Diehard followers enthusiastically, energetically pickup that lowlife baton and race ahead with it.  Because Guyana is so sharply polarized, there are more than enough adversaries to be found to beat them over the head with the equivalents or offshoots of lowlife.  Where did such start?  Try leaders for the answer. (The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)  

   (CJ on lowlife, VP on listening, adjusting)

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• Demerara Waves, hief Justice Wilshire-George, Jagdeo, President Ali

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