Principled Resignations

Dear Editor,

The caption: “Six executive members resign in protest from The New Movement” (SN November 13). It is pleasing that there are citizens like this still present. I must wonder whether are any others like them, the people from those many new parties that basked in the elections limelight and now skulk in the thin darkness.
I proceed with the absolute: all, and I mean all, of those new party people at the leadership level harboured self-serving political calculations, made fools of Guyanese people and voter, and sold themselves cheaply, shamelessly.

Today, they line up to collect their rewards from the PPP/C; together, most of them (not all) plan and plot on how to get in the good graces of those controlling the corridors of power and access to it, as well as drawing nearer to those standing as overseers over the extent of this country’s unknown, hence immeasurable, wealth.
The new party leaders did talk a good game back then (about non-alignment), then they shifted gears (in mid-stream), and last bared personal and party camouflages (democracy’s turn-coats), when the odds became overwhelmingly favourable. The PPP/C got to them, which is now obvious, given where quite a few are housed.

Knowing how the Americans operate undercover, I suspect that more than a few were gotten to and made to adjust thinking, vocals, and visions.
The latter would be personal visions, of course. That is what the six executive members who resigned partially identified. No new political presence, especially the visible and pivotal leaders, seeks to call the wrong kind of attention to self; to risk isolation and feared pariah status; to lose out on the oil running(s) and power plums dangled.

Recognition means access; access leads to influence; and influence inevitably brings success.
It is the kind of personal success that could trickle or cascade down. Just do the preparatory work: establish a company, signal to the powerbrokers and puppet masters’ personal thinking and personal availability. They are always ready to welcome converts with open arms. A piece of oil business desired, that is as good as done (guaranteed).

An entrée into the true workings of the state and the state of things behind the scenes, then just say the word and good things happen; like a board presence, a job, a company created and soon to be a special purpose vehicle for the deposit of political favours.
Naturally, something must be given to get something. It is why crafty leaders go easy on membership stirrings, even distance from, positions on burning issues like BLM and show of support for frontline health workers. Those smell too much of an anti-PPP/C bias, and pro-PNC inclinations. I am not saying that; they did; and whoever wants to take action can proceed. As I weight all this, and so much more still swirling in the machinations and personal ambitions of the new political people, some questions are tabled.

What happened to principle? How about patriotism? Where is truth and integrity in living up to the great big speeches and promises made about making a difference and being for the people? I would agree that it was making a difference for self, and being about the only people that count, which is self only and yet again. I love these people, who from a young age denounce the grizzled oldsters that gore Guyana, but while doing so cunningly angle themselves to get near to older players for a piece of the oil action.

I must remember to set up a company focused on oil. I daresay that I know more about oil (and just about everything else) than these pretenders and fraudsters will ever know, should they live to reach a hundred.
But here I am looking on and seeing only more new scoundrels joining forces with bigger rogues to swindle this land dry.
In time, I plan on opening a school on ethics and decency and honour. The first criterion is that political wastrels would be banned from beyond the outer perimeter of the parking lot. And if that suffers from lack of acceptable applicants, then I could think of establishing a halfway house for recovering serial falsifiers and pathological self-deluders.
This is Guyana’s new wave and new breed of political visionaries and hustlers lining up to capitalize. They smell strongly; they repulse.

GHK Lall