Stewards deceive citizens and continue to be embraced by citizens
DEAR EDITOR,
Something has gone terribly wrong here, and not with me. Throughout our public service machines, there are these boring and defiant jobs that are mind-boggling, and motivate the smartest angers in what is put on the table for consideration; he is contemptible and insulting. To my mind, this is how the stewards entrusted to our welfare, think about, participate in, and respond to accusations of costly wrongdoing while in office. I share some familiar high-profile cases from the dark side of real-life Guyana that repulse and release the worst abuses.
It can involve awarding thousands of acres of the state’s main grounds to personal secrets, which were once secret, while including the suspicious and suspicious corrupt at work. Almost without fail, the nation gets what sounds like it: nothing was wrong. The rules were followed. Fixed practices were obeyed in complete cooperation. The claims of innocence and cleanliness are what he doesn’t add, he doesn’t deserve a clean bill of health. On the heels of thousands of acres of land, news of hundreds of thousands of (American) dollars came about what had initially been rejected in some astonishing business partnership on the East Bank and political gain.
Then, as recently revealed expensive jewelry became the focal point; first for nearly a million to a senior executive, then just over half a million to a former minister. The rebuttals followed the same Guyanese tradition honored by time: only clean hands, no basis for, no truth to, accompanying claims. That is, until the roof fell in, and the walls of diligent defenses collapsed. Someone did wrong; no one confessed; all credibility was irrevocably lost. Unsurprisingly, just before, the same ‘Nancy’ story faced two Guyana oil blocks representing billions of barrels of oil that had been mysteriously manipulated, by an outdoor arrangement in deep darkness. The protection for that rich one was even richer: no laws were broken; there was no corruption involved. And that assertion came from a former president.
Time and again, this is the same broken record played in this country, in revelations of costly humiliations by its trusted, even beloved, elected and select officials; that wide, deep strain of denial that is put before a public who generally knows no better, doesn’t bother me at all. I had to dig deep to deconstruct the equivalent of what our emptying, hair-splitting, and misleading leaders put before us, which required going back 75 years, and back to post-war Germany.
It was at Nuremberg that US Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson was forced to express his disgraceful disbelief in defenses laid before that historic tribunal, which praises the raw march of Nazi war criminals. Justice Jackson noted that, ‘as the bloody Gloucester stood by his slain king, he still denies – say I did not kill them.’ I believe that Justice Jackson’s Shakespearean address, his cry, applies to Guyana: its politicians and public servants, its citizens, too. Because, despite the bloody body and the torture of wrongdoing, of lives ruined and damaged before all, the denials of senior political executives and public officials remain well-placed: no information, no connection, no failure, no damage , no mess. While citizens highlight a lack of interest, over-funding apathy and shameless politeness. Like the Germans before, Guyanese citizens do not hear, do not see, and do not want to know. Men were hanged there; over here, the participants hang us, and not content with that barbarism, they then ridicule a whole nation with the verbal corruptions they draw and pile on a population naive and clingy. We didn’t do it wrong. We did not break any laws. We did not break any rules. We were not involved. If those senses are not the height of humorous absurdity, then every Guyana suffers from neurological baroxysms, and delights in its situation.
These absurdities stand, as by-products of bizarre political and bureaucratic efforts lying in open barrels and in the state; and fragrant verbal bouquets do not get rid of dishonest death odors. This piteous state that Guyana is reduced to speaks volumes. This is the ultimate norm in this society, where leaders devise special healing to suit every horrific situation. It explains why Guyana is so sick, even though it is so rich. It starts with those we put in charge; it remains with those many citizens who may care less. As someone said: Guyana is not gat battam nah moh.
Correctly,
Lall GHK