There may have been a time when there was a worse Speaker of the National Assembly, but when…. In the urgent casting around for a poorer Speaker, there is always ending up at that most barren of wildernesses: who…. These are the jagged, treacherous shoals on which Guyanese are hurled. Their parliament made into a toy, a blow that strikes in the face, what leaves cringing in disbelief and dread. One more stain (to use another honorable man’s word), a stigma hung on a tree for all to see and jeer.
What kind of Speaker presides over such a National Assembly, once hallowed, now profaned? Apologies, for I mis-stepped extraordinary and misspoke. What kind of Speaker, cloaked in honor and self-respect, contributes to such a desecration? In answer to both questions, I identify the incumbent who has surrendered to frenzied ecstasy, now that he holds both distinctions. Well-planned, well-delivered, well-earned. Take a medal, Mr. Speaker for sacrificing for bigger brothers, then making matters worse by putting foot in mouth. It is not the rankness of a disease. Just Guyana’s and the PPP’s art of politics. It is war.
Congratulations to the PPP Govt, which has had remarkable success locating and calling a different caliber of Guyanese to duty in various spheres of local life. The government’s leadership winks and nods, and the order is passed. How high? How far to go? How long to thwart and block and sabotage and holdout? Only people with extraordinary gifts can be so skilled. Speaker of the Guyana’s Parliament, now thrashed and trashed to a black-and-blue state (no puns intended), the Hon. Manzoor Nadir stands elevated, in a class all by himself. A doer. A taker of orders, spoken or unspoken. A deliverer of work that makes other men made of a different fiber stand and say: Not I! Never can that be me. No way will I dive so deeply, so unwisely.
Like a duck takes to water, no matter how grimy and dirty, or layered in the thick hues of midnight, so did Guyana’s Speaker take to the issue of the naming and seating of the Opposition Leader. In righteous indignation, in a moment of uncontrolled umbrage, when sanity fled, a bucket of prime Guyana mud was dumped on foreign guests formerly held as friends, once thought of as illustrious icebreakers and gamechangers. The customary hospitality extended to them was impatiently brushed aside, a table scaled as if in a saloon, and a folded fist raised to bludgeon into silence and submission. It is the spectacle of either John Wayne or Clint Eastwood unleashed. Since this is where Guyana has come to, then to where is it going?
A troubled and dangerous spirit roams this land, has played with the heads of some very important people. Ask the people in We Invest In Nationhood (WIN), who have felt the brunt of their excesses prior to September, and since November. The WIN leader has been pushed around (parliament); pushed about (courts); but has shown that he can be persevering, and nobody’s pushover. Under duress, with his feet now encased in cement shoes, the Speaker set a date for Monday. Thus, a man on extradition row has destiny drawing closer. The Speaker knows what he has to do, should have long done. What will the president do, with that pen hanging heavy in his hand, and a clock that ticks ominously over his head? Guyanese have observed closeup a parliamentary charade. I hope that there is no presidential masquerade that delays traffic, but which keeps the PPP Govt’s program rolling.
It has been a race with time. The winner is still to be decided. The Speaker did his part, stuck to his onions for an eternity, it seemed. His eyes now water copiously; his mouth now reset angrily, self-destructively. The man was only doing his job (as dictated to him). Whoever placed a premium on independence and neutrality are better off finding another tree. Or looking at another country. Guyana on exhibition, a grotesque rendition of parliamentary democracy in full cry. For those who longed for another national EXPO, there is the National Assembly, and the Speaker as the chief referee.
It is fitting that I take leave of this sordid set of circumstances with a bow to Shakespeare: “Upon what meat doth this our Caesar feed that he is grown so great?” Julius Caesar, Act I, Scene II. Guyanese have the honor of substituting the fittest and most proper citizen in place of Caesar.
