By GHK Lall
I thank His Excellency, President Ali for one of his usual syrupy, honeyed speeches on the occasion of the International Day of Democracy observed a few weeks ago. His Excellency, as the written words in the media skimmed over confirmed, has a rather limited version and interpretation of what democracy encompasses, what it is all about, in all of its power, its nuances, and its grand ideals. Ah, democracy, democracy, look at the monstrosity, barbarity, and villainy that Guyana and the PPP have made out of you. The President tried valiantly, but his tones speak of so much that is absent, so much that is abhorrent, in the democracy that he bandies about, and seeks to make hay out of, with words that cannot stand on their own, and with which His Excellency is now a champ. A champ that fails to stir, and convince.
Excellency Ali, there are some things that it is my duty to deliver, and which I respectfully table publicly. Democracy does not begin and end with elections. If that is the limit of domestic intellect, then all that this society has is the tyranny of the poll and the toll that it leaves in its wake. Free and fair is a wonderful start in any exchange or posture about democracy, but there are those ideals of this fragile system of governance that have been maimed and mangled by seniors, ministers, and followers in the PPP Government. The head should rest uneasily. I started out to say that it is a hollow head and a dismal watch, but settled for what is headless and all about what watches out for PPP interests and no more.
Excellency, it is a false start to talk about democracy and have an honest conversation about its role and restraints, when there are all these dishonest narratives from deep inside the bowels and brainstem of the PPP Government. When almost all of the party’s and government’s narrators are falsifiers and deceivers and instigators for narrow partisan purposes, then that is not democracy, but the rankest, most rancorous distortions. They just cannot speak straight, even identify with truth most of the time. For when the taxpayers’ dollars are used to vilify and criminalize conscientious and outspoken citizens exercising their sacred constitutional rights, then there is neither the free nor fair present, but only the foul, if not the foulest. Foul visions by foul men with dark ambitions. To make matters sickeningly worse, there is the people’s media, as funded by their dollars, that is twisted into the grotesque to deliver the bizarre on their heads. I shouldn’t have to mention the State media in its many tentacles weaponized to demonize dissenting citizens found to be detestable. There is no democratic element present there, Dr. President, if I may be allowed to say so. What we have are law-abiding people living in a lawless, gutter state, over which Dr. Ali presides, as though he is comatose.
I quietly remind President Ali that it was the EU during the last stormy elections that made some constructive recommendations about government and the media, and there is the PPP Government and leadership reaction and culture going in the opposite direction. For sure, the EU was helpful in winning a free and fair election, but afterward, it had not a stitch of utility remaining. So, Excellency, when democracy is spoken of, it must be recalled that it is a journey without end, and not one where the termination point was already reached the moment the last ballot, and the last declaration, were official.
Excellency Ali, I repeat something written before. The PNC has been accused of rigging elections. But the PPP has incurred countless accusations of rigging every other thing. Rigging institutions. Rigging checks and balances. Rigging bulwarks against creeping tyrannies and an environment choking with PPP Government corruption. If it is not the media, it is the police. And if it is not the budgets and supplements, it is that last bastion called the judiciary, as concluded by many. When the central government and regional government, as bolstered by unofficial and covert PPP government are all dedicated to oppressing citizens, and cheating them of their inheritance, of their due, then what Guyanese live with is not democracy, but debauchery and depravity.
There is no better example of putridity and depravity that the PPP Government presents to the world than the repugnance called Live in Guyana, aka Live in Freedom House. Surely, His Excellency, President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali cannot be proud of this bastard child so beloved by the PPP hierarchy, but which has no publicly claimed parentage. I have news for President Ali: Live in Guyana (or Live in OP or OPM) is laid on one head only and in one lap only. I regret to inform the President, that truth has to take the ascendancy: it is all part of this democracy that he claims. Governments should not fear citizens, for when they do, then they sink into these cheap, vulgar intimidations that always fail. The operators are in the cabinet, Dr. President, others are young, some seasoned. Take them to Washington or the UN the next time, sir. I do hope that Vice President Jagdeo Prime Minister Phillips, and the Hon. Attorney General Nandall are all reading about this stain traceable to close to the top of the PPP Government. I know that their people are absorbing every word, and there is inestimable value to that interest.
Guyana has a democracy that is about twists and deceits, men without moral underpinnings, and nothing on which truth could be pinned. It is time for the next sweet speech, Dr. President, about democracy, and how good the PPP Government has been with it. Then what will be told about extrajudicial killings, coverups, gutted institutions, government malfeasances, and malice? And one more, Dr. President, what will be said about this Guyanese democracy when there is such widespread government insanity and dishonesty where clean duty is concerned?
