OP-ED | What is Greenidge doing to himself?

By GHK Lall

I feel for Mr. Carl Greenidge, now that his deliberate humiliation is public.  I regret that this Guyanese of talent, skill, experience, and some standing allowed himself to be sucked into the PPP maw, where even the best of possible original intentions today wither in the lengthening creep of Guyana’s tragic sicknesses.

I would give Mr. Greenidge high marks for putting country first, even at the risk of his own personal honor, his likely revilement that was sure to come.  It is so today.  For when one rests with dogs, it is inevitable that fleas attach to his or her body.  To make this personal, I recall some people asking me prior to the 2020 elections, if I would serve under the PPP, and my response was that as much I want to be of assistance to this country, which is what I returned for, I would not be caught in the same room with some leaders of this country.  In fact, it is only now that I have modified my prior position that I would not remain in a place of worship, if they were to be present there, and I happened to be around, such are the depths of my low estimation of them.  So, for Mr. Greenidge to sacrifice his long record, the wisdom of his years, and the richness of his gifts on behalf of his country and to overcome his differences makes him a much better man than me in this respect.

Still, he had to know that what came down was just a matter of time.  I am surprised that he saw it fit to escalate to the people that he did, since in my book, they are the ones responsible for his crude putdowns.  The new kind in town and the aging war charger were let loose on him; the former must prove himself, the latter show him how it is done.  After all, these people have the upper hand, and they operate by no codes of honor.  It is all memory and malice, viciousness and vindictiveness.  And that is what Mr. Greenidge gets in spades.

Editor, I am not one to gloat over the fallen, PPP leaders have enough of that in their spleens for the rest of us.  But I will say this: Mr. Greenidge ought to have known better, he wasn’t dealing with a macabre Machiavelli in the wide leadership ranks, but an utter monstrosity.  Now, they have him dangling in the wind, with what I would term bureaucratic lynching and, to top it all off, in the company of tormentors, are his own.  He is certainly paying a harsh price for wanting to do right by his country, but his love for it and devotion to it are not shared by his new political brethren, whether across the table, or above him in the hierarchy.  That, too, should have been within the precincts of his intellect and wisdom.

On a larger note, Mr. Greenidge’s fate must function as a lesson for his kind who feel comfortable in their political abode.  Their proper place I need neither pinpoint nor elaborate upon, other than that their utility is simply a matter of numerical convenience, of public relations mascots, and for political reference and comparison purposes.  Beyond that, they matter not; and the quicker that that is gotten into the thick skulls of celebrants, the readier they will be for any disappointing eventuality, or any paler public slights, meaning private reminders, of their places in the rulership firmament.

For when a task as nationally significant as the border controversy can count for so little in the eyes of PPP leaders that they can dull and blunt one of their better weapons, then there is little more to be said of how much this country is being weakened, rendered vulnerable, and betrayed on things less visible, less material.  I wish Mr. Greenidge the best going forward.  He should not expect much, besides the usual deviousness.  If he decides to stay, then he is masterly inhuman.  If his mind is made up, and it should be by now, that he must go, then just let it be.  He does not need either the embarrassment or the disgrace or the pathetic place in which he now finds himself.  It is clear what I would do, if faced with such circumstances.  Then again, I am not Mr. Carl Greenidge, and I would not be found dead in that company.  I extend my best to Mr. Greenidge, a man more Guyanese than me.