It is moot now, the Leader of the Opposition (LOO) selection, election. Speaker Manzoor Nadir, the honourable, came to his senses, averted the spectre of a street show-up and a voter shoutout. I commend Speaker Nadir for his thoughtful action, awareness that the tide was ever-rising above his head. He had immersed himself earlier in silence, absence, and a lengthy interval of self-inflicted mental abstinence. Say whatever has to be said about the Speaker, he’s an honourable man. And like the Romans of yore, Guyanese could use a man that is not merely honorable, but timely also in his deliberations, his readiness for long-delayed actions.
One house headlined that he ‘buckled under pressure.’ I differ. The PPP Govt’s leadership read the writing on the wall and discarded all of their other translations and interpretations. Their covert objections, also. For after Magistrate Judy Latchman, the road still has some ways to go. The CCJ looms. Speaker Manzoor (may I, sir?) could holdout for only so long; that farce partnering dangerously into that most unscrupulous of creatures, a parliamentary fraud. He had already had his fun, had to take his licks for carrying the LOO parliamentary embargo for too long. A speaker doubling as a masquerader is truly bad form, a despicable job that is so low and dirty that no one should be saddled with that revulsion. The man who just returned from New Delhi did the heroic, held the bridge, stood as the PPP Govt’s leadership face of pockmarked defiance. Speaker Nadir deserved better, had reached the lowest point (no pun intended) that a Speaker of the National Assembly could embody.
What is intriguing is how quickly the Speaker folded, when a certain word was used. The We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) leader, the Hon. Azruddin Mohamed (he is an MP, isn’t he?) deployed not one, but two right into the middle of Office of the President and Freedom House. Street protest (more on this to follow). The PPP leadership straightened up and listened up. Then propped up the Speaker to step forward and put an end to the nonsense, another ugly chapter in Guyana’s always rollicking history. I share this little position with my fellow Guyanese: if that is what being Speaker of the House in Guyana has come to represent, then Speaker Nadir and others from that glorious pantheon can have it. Garbage collection seems more self-respecting, less self-humiliating. If anything, Speaker Nadir was well chosen, worth his weight in, ah, oil. It is slippery enough, sticky enough. And because Guyana has been blessed with light, sweet oil, some of that golden hue has coated the Speaker. He now glows. What was once intractable and insoluble, that is now manageable due to a generous dose of lubrication. Of the mind. Of speech. Of posture. Oil prices may be declining, but Speaker Nadir’s stock, with that Houdini like maneuver, is rising.
The things that a man or a woman do for a presence in politics in this country are simply beyond belief. Or, what politics twists them into, tortures them to do. After a while, it becomes easier from continuing practice. Guyanese have seen that, I am sure. Incidentally, and as a reminder, all of this is happening in a democracy. A democracy, as is claimed; not tyranny, as is screamed to the world. Guyana’s oil made world headlines. The LOO came out of the water closet and grabbed its own share of media space. If this for the election of a LOO, and in the supposedly open forum of parliament, then what prospects real constitutional reform, where palpable power has to be ceded to the people? So, a little embarrassment doesn’t hurt, for sticks and stones only go so far, doesn’t bring about much of a change. Street protests are another bucket of snakes, and no one wants to get fanged. (Patience, please; coming up).
Here’s my last thought. Speaker Nadir took his time and sharpened his rhyme. The LOO will be elected on Monday. Could the PPP leadership have another trick up its sleeve? That is, the man from WIN ends up holding the wrong end of the stick. Again. Since the Speaker manifested such a marked propensity not to think independently or self-protectively before, there’s a consideration I now put before Guyanese, plus the foreign diplomatic contingent. I am concerned about how all this has impaired his ability to count. Mohamed, beware.
