Letter: From Independent Thinker to Village Idiot–The Fall of the National Assembly Speaker

Dear Editor,

Please allow me this space to vent my frustrations with the Speaker of the National Assembly.  In a move that could only be described as a tragicomic farce, the PPP government, under its ever-ingenious leadership, has decided to ban the word “corruption” from parliamentary discourse. Yes, you heard that right. In Guyana’s National Assembly, where the country’s most pressing issues are meant to be debated, the very mention of the most defining characteristic of the Ali-PPP administration, corruption, has been outlawed. And at the helm of this absurdity? None other than Speaker of the National Assembly, Manzoor Nadir.

Let’s talk about Nadir for a moment. This is a man who, not too long ago, had his own party, The United Force, and once dared to stand on his own principles. Now, he finds himself a puppet on the strings of the PPP, doing their dirty work and enforcing ridiculous bans that reek of desperation. How the mighty have fallen. Nadir is no longer an independent political figure but a washed-up has-been, propped up by a government that knows exactly how to use him: a once-defiant voice turned into a docile enforcer of the party line.

The decision to ban the word “corruption” is as laughable as it is disturbing. It’s as though the PPP leadership has convinced itself that if they cannot hear the word, the concept itself ceases to exist. What’s next? Shall we ban words like “justice,” “transparency,” and “accountability”? Perhaps “prosperity” will be outlawed too, lest it remind the nation of what it lacks under this administration.

Nadir, for his part, is simply playing his role in this theater of the absurd. Stripped of relevance and credibility, he clings to his position as Speaker not out of a sense of duty but to satisfy some lingering need for esteem. This is a man who has compromised his values and traded his independence for a front-row seat to the PPP’s circus. Why would the PPP choose him for this role? Because they’ve figured him out. He’s not a challenge to their power but a tool for its perpetuation, a pliable, fallen political figure willing to sweep their mess under the rug and call it governance.

But let’s not allow the distractions of Nadir’s antics to obscure the bigger issue here, the PPP’s complete and utter failure to confront corruption. Corruption is the single greatest obstacle to Guyana’s development. It is the reason why the wealth from our oil resources, which should be lifting every Guyanese out of poverty, instead lines the pockets of a select few. To ban the word “corruption” in Parliament is not just an insult to our intelligence but a betrayal of the people’s trust.

The solution isn’t censorship. You can’t hide corruption by silencing its name, just as you can’t clean a house by hiding the dirt. What Guyana needs is a government willing to face corruption head-on, with transparency, accountability, and a commitment to justice. As the saying goes, “The fish rots from the head down,” and this administration is proving that adage true with every decision it makes.

The PPP’s strategy is clear, distract, deflect, and deny. Nadir’s role in this is equally transparent, he’s the errand boy sent to do the dirty work, hoping that enforcing bans on words will give him a semblance of relevance. But Guyana deserves better than this. We deserve leaders who confront problems, not sweep them under the rug. We deserve governance that prioritizes the people, not the pockets of the powerful.

So let’s not give Nadir or the PPP the satisfaction of distracting us from the real issues. Let’s starve them of the relevance they crave and focus instead on holding them accountable. After all, you can silence the word, but you can’t silence the truth.

Shawn Riley