Stabroek News Sunday

For integrity alone the PPP gov’t is not trusted

- Dear Editor,

The Vice President never ceases to amaze (“PPP/C will not allow businessme­n involved in “illegal activities” to tarnish its reputation -Jagdeo” (KN August 20). I clear the air first. I know one of the names from close official contact for three years, and a second through his father alone; the third I have read of, and that’s it. The first two (using father as proxy) always knew where things stood, what I stood for, through our sturdy disagreeme­nts. A kind of uneasy peace prevailed in their corner, and I thank them for the native wisdoms I gained, while imparting the nonnegotia­ble(s) that came with the territory.

The record is there, which Messrs. Ram, Nascimento, Hinds, and Singh pored over, with the results speaking loud and unchalleng­eable by anyone. Anyone! The auditors from Solomon and the staff can speak of their own experience­s, and how they assessed all that went on in those three years. So, when the VP seeks to speak of reputation, I suggest, I insist, that he starts there, and look there. For integrity alone, he has the standard for his corporate chiefs and his party. The PPP as a political group could learn, as it makes a move in the direction of some mystical reputation that it does not have, but which the VP magically attaches to it.

I have a word of advice for him and the President, who I rope into this simplest of communicat­ions: both of them can learn, too. If the objective is unsullied reputation for party (or person), then be ultra-careful on sources of money accepted. I have extended the same recommenda­tion to my other brothers, those in the PNC. I recognize that I lost, in that these free suggestion­s, recommenda­tions, and advice are too costly to contemplat­e. Thus, there are these macabre dances about reputation and “illegal” and the President and investigat­ions.

The VP needs no enlightenm­ent from the likes of me, for he ought to know by himself, that the Guyana Police Force labours under a dreadful wretchedne­ss of reputation, much of it earned. This hurts Guyana. I am hurt by a wounded GPF. I

acknowledg­e the VP’s riposte at the Opposition and its possible agenda that hints that the government cannot be trusted. The words are the VP’s own, but I help him some more. The PPP Government is not trusted, not even by its own; at least, the ones who are still capable of clarity of thought, conscience, and some conviction. Chronic corruption­s are responsibl­e.

And I inform the VP that no amount of spinning, no frequency of posturing and distancing can suffice to remove the stain and stench. Further, I regret having to share this with the VP, but I do it to his face, and in the straightes­t, simplest manner: he himself is not trusted. I don’t; and as much as I try, I can’t, my brother. I just can’t, and I wish it were otherwise with all my heart. Like the GPF, that also is self-created by years of industry in that direction, towards those objectives built on certain kinds of ambitions, which inevitably fuel such harsh conclusion­s. I know I forgot that a man died in the worst of circumstan­ces, whoever he was, whatever his own reputation. But I do this: we all killed him, we all mowed down his memory, when we are party to these concoction­s that comes from the VP about who and what is “illegal” and what tarnishes so-called “reputation. Get real, my brother.

Sincerely,

GHK Lall

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