Diplomacy, deception and deadlock: When silence became complicity

Jan 12, 2026 Letters

Dear Editor,

In a recent Stabroek News article, the European Union’s Ambassador to Guyana, Luca Pierantoni, finally broke his cautious silence to express “confidence” that Parliament would soon resume sittings and that the long-stalled appointment of a Leader of the Opposition would follow. His optimism, however, arrives after more than two months of parliamentary paralysis — a silence that, for many observers, spoke louder than words.

What makes this new chorus of diplomatic concern striking is its timing. Suddenly, the same international voices that once sat quietly through a truncated parliamentary ceremony — applauding a presidential address delivered in the conspicuous absence of the Opposition — are now invoking the “rule of law.” Their \collective current calls ring hollow against the memory of that moment of indulgence, when they watched constitutional imbalance play out before them and mistook silence for prudence. But silence in the face of wrongdoing is not neutrality, it is abdication.

The truth is that the paralysis in our Parliament was no accident; it was the product of political engineering. The government’s calculated delay in recognising a Leader of the Opposition, allegedly contingent on the outcome of a pending extradition, was not a matter of judicial patience but political convenience. That extradition process now beset by missing documentation, piecemeal disclosures, and procedural missteps has exposed itself as less a legal proceeding than a cynical stratagem to remove a political obstacle.

In the courtroom, even the presiding magistrate’s warning that “this trial is not a chess game” stripped away the last pretense of legitimacy. Having rushed to manufacture an outcome, the state has now entangled itself in its own web of haste and hubris. The resulting stalemate has frozen legislative business at the precise moment when the country’s most consequential undertaking — the 2026 National Budget — hangs in the balance.What began as a plot to sideline dissent has now paralysed governance itself.

The architects of this deadlock are learning what they refused to hear: institutions cannot be manipulated without consequence, and foreign envoys who mistake courtesy for complicity have forfeited moral authority when it matters most.

When diplomats stay silent as constitutional breaches unfold before their eyes, they are not observing restraint; they are endorsing decay. It is only now — with the system grinding to a halt — that they rediscover their voices and rediscover the law. But the rule of law is not a slogan to revive when convenient; it is a duty to uphold, especially when it is under siege.

Sincerely,
Hemdutt Kumar

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