We either commit to do the right thing, or we don’t
Dear Editor,
I admit that the Hon. The Leader of the Opposition knows how to choose them. It does so with one loser after another. First, there was that dual citizen piece that blew up into a national crisis, and now this one about giving (“Harmon supports policy on giving – causes PPP / C of hypocrisy” SN, January 26). My thoughts are shared.
I can’t believe these are the people I supported. I can’t believe this is the kind of leadership on the way forward for the Guyana that I treasured. Between them and the PPP, there is this rush to decide which group leadership is rotten, more of the gutter, and more lacking in principle and decency and honor. I do not know about the Hon. Leader of the Opposition, but from here I know: I don’t need any damning policy to guide my outlook, my views, my decisions in life, where some things are involved. I don’t care what the PPP and his band of crocks do (they do); or how hypocritical that party is (it’s okay); or, for that matter, what the rest of the world is doing with giving and receiving gifts. That includes the PNC, the AFC, the RDC, and the CDC.
I have no problem with symbolic gifts, or gifts of small and trivial quantities, though I prefer not to be extended and accepted at all. But, for a senior officer to take it with a straight face and a hearty smile for an item of half a million dollars, and then try to rationalize that, to boot, it is revealing about the depths to which this society has fallen. I think that Mr Burnham would have had a serious problem. I am extremely skeptical as to whether his 21st century leadership equivalent in the PPP would have any problems at all, so they lack morality and integrity. Otherwise, I will admit that Hon. The Opposition Leader is on the money with that one for PPP hypocrisy, which he should have strengthened by pointing to Pradoville, the upscale and largely apartheid enclosure, and telling the Guyanese public about the tens of millions of labor for free (donations) and free materials (more donations), and free consultation and advising and pursuing efforts that were so readily available, due to the expectations of quid pro quos (still more political donations) down the road.
Now the ex-minister may not have known (nor should he be expected to) that what was ‘gifted’ to him was in the vicinity of what the jeweler priced and took from a Guyanese taxpayer. But he should also have known that it was not for GY $ 10,000, even GY $ 20,000, but considerably more, as in six figures. And that alone makes it unacceptable and returns immediately. Not on the taxpayer dimension. Not on my watch. Not for me. No way in hell. And should the Hon. The Leader of the Opposition harbors any doubts about what I say I represent and I have tried hard to live with him, then I recommend that he consult his colleague, the former minister who responsible for natural resources, and his brothers who were / are high up in the PNC organization chart. The latter shared three years of a unique strain of public service with me at a state agency. The only policy was the prevailing personal standard. Let this confession be put on the record: temptations come, and are difficult to overcome; but they always disappear. Deductions are emerging, and those must be labored against as well, with success achievable only if the heart is in the right place. Occasionally, trips will come, but that must be minimal and an exception, a rare exception that can be pardoned.
When anyone operates at this level, and with such a mindset, then there is still no interest or care as to what the other fellow has done or is doing; priorities and strengths are focused on holding your head high and only come from living in that strange way that is now so alien to Guyanese. This is why I am concerned about this change and apportionment by the Hon. Leader of the Opposition for safe harbor. I say to him unequivocally: there is none, sir. We either commit to do the right thing, or we don’t. And when we do, then we live life as it should be, and love it all again.
Truly,
Lall GHK