Impressed that more is speaking to hard realities

Dear Editor,

Though still a tiny number, it is warming to learn of more and more Guyanese pausing, analyzing, thinking, and concluding that the sinister is now inseparably linked to our oil.
How it has been husbanded corruptly by the PPP/C. And how the PNCR-led opposition has joined hands with the corrupt PPP/C to cheat first, and next deceive expectant citizens with our oil.
Chartered Accountant, Nigel Hinds, recently went public with the scorching and damning.
Damning it is, when Kaieteur News is almost single-handedly leading the charge with interest and energy on the political skullduggeries with Guyana’s oil wealth; damning when the paper’s publisher provides daily revelations of conniving and crookedness.
Where are the ABC & E luminaries to help pressure for transparency and accountability? Their distance and silence are damning. It is similarly damning when other sections of the media are close to silent; this includes the trusted.

Damning when all those political newcomers and new groups, that spoke so brightly about ethics and integrity in government, only now turn out to be the latest immoral charlatans, part of the swindling that oil fosters; they sell, they exchange, they sleep with devils and their spawn is the trail left for all to observe.
Democracy is not about elections alone; it is about everything that follows as part of clean governance for the people’s benefit.

But there is contented silence, when all we have is the damning, which flies in the face of common sense, solid commercial practice, prudent stewardship, and clean governance; those all collapse under the weight of the secret tricks turned by the PPP/C, and which are aided and abetted by its Siamese Twin, the PNCR-led opposition leadership that has partnered with the PPP/C for a rich piece of the oil action.
Having backed itself into the darkest corner, and possessing no other options, the Opposition retreats and shelters under the flimsiest covers, but through which its disfiguring and self-incriminating nakedness show. The collusion of the opposition with the PPP/C for corrupt ends, rich paying political and personal dividends, is now undeniable.

Oil is of the present and the future and, therefore, its most careful management is non-negotiable. That we are completely devoid of any such elements is utterly damning. Oil is all of the incalculable leadership mistakes of the past made by both the PPP/C and PNCR, and of which there cannot be and should not be indicative of any repetition, but it is damning that those leadership failures have now plummeted to depths, hitherto believed impossible, hence unattainable, yet undeniably present.

The PPP/C give aways, the middlemen, the secrecies; and, above all, the opposition’s indifference and malaise. The opposition reminds of those parents and spouses and siblings, who collect criminal booty and hear nothing, see nothing, say nothing.
In aggregate, this is what damns the expectant citizens of this country to a continued impoverished state. Guyanese are going to be like those gifted students or workers, who never realize their raw and vast potentials, because of rum or coke or a destructive partner or fascination with the bright lights and the tiny fleeting things of the moment. In Guyana’s case, it is oil money.

It is damning that there are no longer any PPP/C guardians of democracy principled enough and courageous enough to call out their godfathers in the party for selling out the future of Guyanese, who voted for them.
It is equally damning that the Coalition’s defenders and false narratives peddlers have absolutely nothing by way of public condemnation of their party’s treacheries with the nation’s oil riches. The ultimate treachery for money that betrays those who supported and believed.

Last, and this is tiring, it is damning that the self-serving private sector, the lost spiritual shepherds, and the now absentee civil society segment display no drive, no spirit, no rage over what has happened and is happening with this country’s oil.
What percolated in the minds of and came to life at the hands of the criminal PPP/C and PNCR and all the rest of that rotten bunch that suck up to them, partner with them, and tarnish people and prospects.
Just the other day, some visionary recommended one as the next president. That makes perfect sense, since a political secret society, a Mafia, calls the shots here. We can’t do worse, so why not? And that, is as damning as they come, and we can get.

GHK Lall