By GHK Lall- Sorry, Ms. Amanza. As they say at medical facilities, dead on arrival. In fact, I would go further and say that before the ink was try on the paper, that word “corruption” was going nowhere. Certainly, not back in the lexicon of the parliament of the people. Not a day passes in this country, when chatter about corruption (PPP Government corruption) is not winging its way far and wide across these 83,000 squares.
It is more than about corruption in government quarters; it is of how much and whose hands are dirtier than a pig that just had a mud bath. The people are raging about corruption, but in the house of the people (parliament), corruption lives in sounds of silence. Who has so much to fear, so much to keep from the public eye and ear? Is this a backward, upside down, shallow grave country or what?
The Hon Speaker of the House banned the word “corruption.” I am not surprised. For there was a man with a rare gift, two of them in fact. First, he sees wicked genies crawling out of the walls of parliament, and then he hears different voices talking in his head.
The Speaker doesn’t answer to the likes of Ms. Amanza Walton-Desir, MP. He answers to those voices whispering in his head, which are wired to Robb Street and Vlissingen Road and wherever else local movers and shakers are.
Ms. Amanza ought to have known better: corruption to be put back among the allowable words in parliament has no standing with the Speaker. If so, then what would be next? Rogues and ruffians, a den of thieves, a parliament of, ah, street hustlers? Unprincipled and unsavoury? If I had my way, I would add subversives and sellouts, betrayers and barterers. Think the 2016 Exxon oil contract, which is now the birth certificate and Exxon good behavior certificate of almost all in the PPP side of the aisle. Often, I wonder about the PNC side of it, too.
Parliament should have been the blue-ribbon standard bearer of manners and decorum in this country. It ought to have been the showcase of intellectual flights and oratorical lightning. What is parliament today under the guiding hands and invisible hands that run this country? I bow in recognition of the sinecure nature of the Speaker of the House role. He is gatekeeper and dog watcher. Guess who are the dogs?
Here’s a hint: from the actions of the man in the charge of the house, they are not the bad boys and rude boys and stiletto-heeled femmes in the PPP. What the parliament is today resembles the false peace of the graveyard, the hollow civility of lawmakers, and an abandoned house pretending to have legit residents inside. Parliament is a reflection of Thursday afternoons. If no comportment and no class then and there, then what to expect that in parliament? Corruption of the mind and the mouth is part of the corruption involving the people’s money.
Nice try, though, Ms. Amanza. Talk about sneaky. But the Speaker is too slick to be caught off-guard by such a nimble move. Recall from earlier: he doesn’t speak to PNC people and their motions and papers (and prayers). Imagine if corruption is given clearance to weave its way back into parliament. What other business would there be time to talk about? There is corruption surrounding oil management. There is corruption involved up to its nasty eyeballs in government (PPP) spending.
There is corruption coming out of the pores of one PPP member after another in the once honorable house, with a tiny, iffy few excepted. The budget coming up on the agenda for this week has its share of corruptions. I point to some of the nongovernment people who have a significant say in it. When was the last time anyone of them (any one of them) was a participant in something with a sliver of honesty in it?
The Speaker of the House would need a hundred gavels and mallets to keep order should he make the mistake of allowing corruption to take its rightful seat in parliament. That is, at the head of the main table. This is the grim reality of Guyana today.
In a country riddled like Swiss cheese with corruption, that is the most unwelcome of feared words, and must be blocked from entering through the portals of parliament. Is this a country, or a cartoon version of one? Does Guyana have a real parliament where there is serious debate on the issues (including chronic corruption)?
Or is the National Assembly of the Guyanese people a shadow bottled in a shell made of straw. It is largely the graceful handiwork of the Speaker. If anyone thought that he was sluggish as to how things should be in the National Assembly, they need to relearn their alphabet and 2 times table.
The Speaker may not be of many things, but he knows how bread gets buttered in this country. Meanwhile, there was the surprise of Minister Texeira siding with Ms. Walton-Desir on corruption and its parliamentary ban. Minister Texeira rarely speak on her own, or is out of step with the PPP leadership. What could be behind her strange stance? Clearly, a mystery presently.
This is a fantasy country: the word “corruption” banned inside the hallowed halls of parliament. Maybe burning beds are closer to home.
