Guyana is now well on the way with a parallel to 2020. Recall that five-month hiatus from March to August, and the mysteries and controversies surrounding who won the elections, who should be declared the winner. It is 2025, and Guyana, once again, is deep into another five-month season of stickup, rig-up, and hang-up. Not for the declaration of national elections results, but for the finalization of a political opposition leader. Less of more time passes, more it standstills. If there was a different way in political Guyana, it would be time to call its quits. The end of the world has arrived.
In this matter of Leader of the Opposition (OL), I have heard or read splendid conversations about the constitution. Awesome, undoubtedly, with congrats flowing abundantly. Now try this three-dollar bill, and see if it can be changed, and if any change is left. Constitutions are made by men for men. Men are not made for constitutions. If that is considered traitorous or sacrilegious, then solitary confinement it is for me. I persist. Constitutions are the products of men (and women). Constitutions are nothing without the will to practice their provisions, as hailed, in both letter and/or spirit. For what is a piece of parchment, however sacred, when men lack the will and wisdom to act? To act in accord with the highest standards [and ideals, too], to make that same constitution come alive and inspire others, motivate all, to greater effort for greater good, and then the greatest good for the greatest many.
In contrast, when a constitution is seen as an instrument for the subversion of what is positive, of what retards putting another dispute into the solved and finished bin, then it’s time to stop talking about that compilation of binding operating conditions, and start focusing on men. The men who holdup, rig-up, and hang-up what should be. No names. No fireworks. Simply a humble reading of the environment. Those who don’t read, end up being birdseed. Plucked and picked at will. There is parliament. There is a nation with people. There is the business to be done, but which is held-up, rig-up, and hung-up. I must ask knowing that I fall still lower in some powerful people’s estimation. When the international observer missions left here, did they carry the heads of Guyanese decisionmakers, political men standing at the bridge, in their suitcases? When heads are gone, it goes without saying that no brain is left behind. Better be lifeless than brainless. A national governance apparatus without a brain is AI without any algorithms and gears. A parliament where men can’t think nor act for clean objectives, is that most curious of political apparitions. The day of the breathing dead. Guyana has mutated into that kind of country, where some men think for other men, and the brainless and thoughtless men delight in having decisions taken out of their hands. For those that I offend, pardon is asked, without one word changed. For that’s where I am.
In this business of addressing and closing out the naming of the OL, there is a process. When parliament declares a new holiday, the opportunity for a process to commence is rundown, putdown, and closed down. Nice job, if one has a liking for developments from the underworld. But there is more to this than the mere local and political. I submit the colonial and imperial. I had my hiccups with Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham when they used those two words, among the dirtiest in the Western world. Now, I see them as princes, patriots of the top drawer. Look at where Guyana is with the naming of the OL (remember -Opp Leader). The executive tars itself. The legislative wraps itself in a sickly, cowardly yellow. And to the interpretive portion of the domestic triumvirate is left the burden of putting one ear to the ground, having one eye in the back of its head, and hoping that whoever decides doesn’t have one foot in the career grave.
Where is the constitutional in that, folks? Democratic, or just plain chronically, nationally sick? Sorry, but I don’t see the democratic; only the static and hysteric. The latter is five years in advance. Recall from ancient times, what happened to the young princes. Recall also the biblical: a baby serpent can grow into a lethal snake. In failing even to begin process for choosing an OL, behold a country prostrate. To the dictates of the new colonials. To the craven lusts of the spineless and brainless, and less other anatomical orbs. If someone had said to me in North American that I would have to go to South America to discover North Korea, disbelief would have followed. Believe! From Panmunjom to Guyana’s jumbie kingdom. Blessings.
