By GHK Lall-New PNC/APNU parliamentary leader, Dr. Terrence Campbell, has my best wishes. Prayers, too. He’ll need a steady stream of both. In looking at his new role from different angles, I keep coming back to the same place. Dr. Campbell has a basket to fetch water to bathe ducks. The ducks are unruly and nasty. The water is in short supply, and poor quality. And, the basket’s condition alone is enough to turn a sane man into a basket case. Good luck, sir.
How does a man with a 12-oz glove cope when his opponent has a 36-lb one? How does a man function with some distinction when he is forced to serve two masters, maybe more? There is the PNC master, the parliamentary master of ceremonies, the political mastermind that wears the name Bharrat Jagdeo, and that biggest, loudest, most demanding of masters, the Guyanese people?
I think that Dr. Campbell needs more than luck, hopes, wishes, and prayers. He could use a miracle; a cluster of those. I will pray for him. Just like I do for Excellencies Ali, Jagdeo, Phillips, Norton, Mohamed, and Walton-Desir. I don’t discriminate when dealing with whoever is above my head. I may be a slack fellow, but I know better than to play games in some situations.
Dr. Campbell’s task is going to be uphill, due to Mr. Norton’s close proximity. A clean break from the leadership would have been healthier, sends the right message, sets the right ambience. He will have a problem working with Mr. Mohamed, who may be rightfully sore at having to manage with not being able to name his people as commissioners to GECOM. However well it is liked by some Guyanese, GECOM is the pits. Get too near to it, and the stench can send into a coma.
With special regard to the good folks in that new PNC team of a dozen sturdy citizens of this country, I think that Dr. Campbell loses some luster from not having the likes of Roysdale Forde, Annette Ferguson, and Mervyn Williams by his side in the trenches of the National Assembly. Mr. Williams bowed out; who will follow? I thought of saying gutters, but thought better of it due to fears of landing on the wrong side of the Hon. Speaker of the House. I’m a believer in that verse: a man must know his limitations.
Dr. Campbell brings a considerable amount of business sense to the table. In Guyana, political sense trumps business sense, and he is starting out shorthanded. He has his band of brothers and sisters, but he could use another tough cop on the parliamentary beat, besides Dr. David Hinds. With so many blasted doctors in the people’s house, it is inevitable that some of the other people milling about, clamoring for attention, will be written up for a hospital bed. Ever see a doctor that doesn’t like to write a prescription, or an admission slip?
Still, I have high hopes for the new PNC parliamentary chief, Terrence Campbell. He first stood up to, then walked away from, ANUG, and he ended up right back in the political jug. He raised some strenuous objections during what was held out as honest discussions and patriotic decisions pertaining to the oil money, only to find himself up to his neck in molasses. And piranhas in the middle of Georgetown. There is an Amazon out there in the wilds, and there is an Amazon right here in the capital city. In the latter, sharks roam freely, and are always looking out for some object in which to sink their teeth. It isn’t quite Jaws, but it is just as raw.
From what I know, Campbell is a survivor, which means that he is a fighter. Now is not the time for any Guyanese to lay down and play dead. But for those who are capable to get up and carry this country on his or her back. It’s a rough job, but Terrence Campbell was the one who raised his hand, stepped forward, and said “Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.”
If that sounds like Martin Luther, it is. Martin Luther had 95 points of dispute. I advise the PNC parliamentary leader to subtract the five and work with nine. It is not conventional math, but nothing is conventional about politics in Guyana, and particularly parliament. Recall that 2030 is a mere matter of five years away, and half of Guyana’s electorate is available for conversion.
Last, it was the USSR’s Mikhail Gorbachev who said, “We had ten years after the Cold War to build a new world order, and yet we squandered them.” Guyanese only have five, and it’s just a new domestic order. Over to Dr. Campbell and company.
