“Don’t you worry darlin’, I’ll be there
There whenever you need to know that there is someone who cares, oh Yeah!
By GHK Lall- From England’s Jerry and the Pacemakers and me to Excellency Jane Miller, UK High Commissioner to Guyana. There she was following in the footsteps of her counterpart from the EU, Excellency Luca Pierantoni. Excellency Miller was very specific. Like the Egyptian Pharaoh, Rameses II in Cecil B. DeMille’s Ten Commandments: Let there be an opposition leader in Guyana, and let it come about now. And there it was that I thought that the honorable High Commissioner was crying in Australia following the drubbing of their former masters by the Aussies who were sent up the river without a paddle centuries ago. Literally. Guyana’s leading political players could learn a lesson from those gutsy, never-say-die, patriots running riot Down Under.
No! I was mistaken and the proper apologies are tendered at the feet of Excellency Miller. What! And leave the fleshpots of Guyana now overflowing with light, sweet, rich crude, and all of its commercial possibilities. Not a chance! When the High Commissioner weighed-in on the Leader of the Opposition, the LOO, which should be as familiar as ta-ta, cheerio, and the telly to the Excellent One, and on the heels of the EU’s Luca Pierantoni’s pronouncement on parliament, something dawned.
It was the Court of St James now playing ball with the European Court. Never in the history of Guyana has so few paid so much attention, and made so much sacrifices, for so many. One of these days, I must make up my mind and run for office. For real.
It is approaching four and a half months, since the September shockers occurred. There was more than one. The first was the man from, and the group called, We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) and the political earthquake that they caused. The second was the victory that the PPP pulled off in plain sight, and lived to celebrate quietly. Because the foreign contingent of ABCE has been up to its neck in Guyana’s political processes and democratic developments, it is inspiring that the plenipotentiaries of those same countries have now broken their long silence, when the post-election step of parliament has been so shabby.
I say that it is not a moment too soon. The ABCE countries have been so entrenched (I would say entangled) in Guyana’s politics, that it would have been highly improper and unacceptable for them to withdraw and settle for silence. Not when parliament and the LOO have languished so long, and looked as if they would never be fittingly addressed. Budget or no budget. Presidential rants or otherwise, that mean nothing these days, so commonplace those have become. (More on this to follow)
Thus, it is very encouraging that whatever stimuli was applied, that first the EU, and now the British, then the American and Canadian heads in Guyana have all spoken up in some very blunt ways about both parliament and the LOO, and that positive developments should be coming up soon. I do not know, nor need to know, if it is the respective Foreign Offices of these two entities that nudged in the direction now public; or if that came from internal deliberations and diplomatic distaste for the impasse that has lingered so long, and which undermines claims about parliamentary democracy and the like.
The latest episode is that the ABCE quartet have spoken almost in tandem, and their positions are sure to have some weight. It would have been helpful of the US and Canada had made their contributions earlier to this embarrassment of parliament virtually suspended in what is claimed as a democracy, and the LOO held hostage by the machinations of his political adversaries. The US is a party to the extradition battles, the ambassador still stepped out and spoke; while Canada was sure to follow in lockstep with the other three in the diplomatic alphabet.
Now that both the EU and Great Britain (is it still so?), and the US and Canada are all onboard, with clear pronouncement, I wait to see if the PPP of Ali and Nandlall will break their stranglehold on parliament and the needed movement towards a LOO. The bottom line is that there can’t be talk about democracy, and there is this unhealthy and unhappy state in parliament and relative to get the LOO named.
