President Ali’s Pledge of Justice Faces a Crisis of Credibility- Lall

By GHK Lall- Minds are too closed in this country.  They were too narrow, for starters.  Now they must open, so that real justice can be unearthed.  So that the discontented in Guyana do not mete out their own brand of justice and reverse this country’s clock 60-70 years.  President Ali has to take the lead.  When he commits the full weight of his government to going anywhere and upending any sacred cows, that’s what he must deliver.  Unfortunately, he has failed before, and I watch him setting the stage or another unsettling failure.

When a president gives his leadership word, his word of honor, that the “thorough” could be expected, because he guarantees its delivery, then nothing less will suffice.  Pres. Ali may have his own definition of what a word like “thorough” means to him.  Per his record, it is more of a politically expedient definition than one that the circumstances demand.

For results, just look at where Guyanese are today.  They labour with the unshakeable instinct that whatever the president promised, they are left to deal with a layer of real injustice added to their heaps of suspicions about injustice.  Nothing gets better, matters degrade further.  There is no closure, there is none satisfied, and there is none ready to move on without constantly looking back.  He has not done everything that he could.  No, sir!

Considering what Pres. Ali has given Guyanese, there has been nothing else but looking back, with disgust and anger thickening, rising.  Too many unsolved cases; even when there is official insistence-investigations done, people charged, matters before the courts-that cases that occurred under mysterious circumstances can now be put to rest.  Whenever one citizen is charged, Guyanese nod their heads, and shrug: there’s the latest fall guy substituted for the real street perps, the inside authors.

The other side of these crime investigations is that they always seem to have one step missing, one gap that asks why not, and a result that comes across as just too neat to be acceptable.  If it is too cute to be truth, then it is one more instance of the devious at work.  One of such could be shrugged off, two causes some staggering, but three of them strike to the knees.  There is a lingering question that gnaws at the minds of Guyanese: why is there the impression that somebody just took them for a ride?

Speaking for myself only, when a national leader of the stature of president puts his name against a commitment, there is an unbreakable seal to it.  It is that whatever the danger, whoever is exposed, let the matter be tracked to its complete end, and the chips fall wherever they do.  A bubble must burst, then burst it.

A loyalist has to be surrendered to the law, then the law stands supreme, rules the moment.  And the law must deliver in a manner that does not raise any issues about its character.  In other words, when the thorough is promised, then the fullest circle must be traveled, so that trust is fostered, the credible becomes the norm.  Citizens will be satisfied that they are not getting political solutions, but genuine ones.  Because no stone was left unturned, no suspect was given a wide berth.

The above will only be gotten close to, have some probability (greater than lesser) of unsullied success, if those areas and approaches are covered by citizens of high caliber (boldness, depth, independence).  Those whose character withstands any legitimate scrutiny, whose records are of courage under pressure, of uncompromising attitudes.

Put differently, men and women who don’t care about monetary rewards, nor politicians’ favors, and know well how the game is played.  They don’t play them for any price.  They prefer not to be seen as having the qualities that fit the requirements of governors; one of which is to do as told; another is to know what sells, i.e., put a nice polish on troubling developments that enrage.

The wish is not to number in the cabal that will always be considered for a lucrative gig later; such operators need only two terms of reference: the kind of outcome expected and what’s the payoff.  Foreign mercenaries are as energetic and aromatic as local lackeys.  Regrettably, the latter category now dominates Guyana’s demographic.  Thorough, anybody?

Note that I have not named any places or persons, dead or alive, and for good reasons.  It is better to keep this general and clinical, so as to avoid the usual slide into inflaming and destructive partisanship.  What I do, however, is to take Pres. Ali’s public posture(s), and match them up against a matrix of standards.  They don’t make the grade, don’t come close.  HE hasn’t led the way for the “thoroughness” guaranteed.  Nor done as much as he could.