OPINION: Only PNC-led coalition members, where are the PPP ones?

Last Updated on Sunday, 26 January 2025, 21:34 by Writer

By GHK Lall

First, there was the Hon. Charrandas Persaud. He progressed from honorable to Excellency, and then came back down to earth—right back by the fleshpots of Demerara. I have always insisted that Guyana is one enchanting country. It has an irresistible magnetic pull, and it has men and women with animal magnetism. Then, along came the Hon. Geeta Chandan-Edmonds with the scintillating 2025 budget. Please excuse the slipping in of that adjective, for when else am I going to use them, spice things up in beloved Guyana? The budget has its thrilling positives; it is to be recognized and commended, which is something that I cheer when it comes from an opposition member. But for whom, honorable member of the impeccable national house? MP Chandan-Edmonds detected a fund for the Guyanese people. I interpreted the national budget for 2025 as having those fat pockets of dollars that made for a big slush fund for the PPP Government.

More to the thrust of this worshipful offering before my fellow Guyanese, I may be mistaken, but I thought that there were three score and five (65) members in the pristine National Assembly held by a short leash in the ultra-capable hands of the Hon. Speaker of the House, the erudite and always right Manzoor Nadir. So, how is it and why is it that only two members have seen it fit to speak their minds, and to give a vigorous workout to what I shall, ahem, call their conscience? Is governance in this country this clean, this good? For my part, I read this as saying that the political leaders running this country function at incredible heights. Further, I assert that President Ali and Vice President Jagdeo would have been the top contenders for the Nobel Prize for flawless, incorruptible national leadership, if there was one. There is a reason that I say this, which is now presented to peers, from considerate ones to those in the contemptuous column.

More revealingly, how is it that both conscientious and courageous parliamentarians, Mr. Persaud and Ms. Chandan-Edmonds are from the PNC-led coalition and there is none from the PPP? I do not believe for a New York minute that these two remarkable Guyanese are the only ones who see and know right from wrong. So, what happened to my friends, the ones faithful to the Constitution (and their consciences) on the PPP side of the aisle? I must check with the Hon. Clerk of the Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs, but nobody has informed Guyanese that their national house is overrun by cockroaches. There is that concerning matter, now at crisis proportions, of disappeared consciences from the entire PPP wing of the National Assembly. It is a staggering development, one worthy of the Guinness Book of Guyanese records, maybe even Ripley’s.

The spotless record is there for all to see: trillions of dollars spent, and all is perfect as heaven on one of its better days. Now, that is governance! That is clean leadership on sizzling display. It is not earthly, human. Just divine. Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell could have a problem with the nominee of a Republican president, in democratic America, but not a whisper here, a word out of place in PPP Guyana. All things are that bright and beautiful. Tory MPs in England’s House of Commons could find fault, actually disagree, with their own Prime Ministers, from Boris Johnson to Rishi Sunak. But no PPP MP in sun-soaked Guyana has a problem, not even a hiccup, with the many tempting billions, and their angelic leaders’ management of those. I have come across perfection, but this is unworldly: first for 23 infallible years, and now closing in on the last four and half. Speaker Manzoor Nadir, is so assured of the divine state of PPP things (and the divine state of PPP kings) that he banned that deforming word called corruption. He must not know the things that the rest of Guyana knows. Is this something extraordinary or what? Does this take the cake or what? I mean there is now a national shortage of cakes, given Speaker Nadir’s corruption ban. Man, even God in heaven had a problem with Lucifer and had to dash him out on his head from that sacred space. But there isn’t a hair askew in Ali and Jagdeo Guyana. Can I get a piece of that righteous action, please? It seems more easily available than the righteousness that I exert myself for in the houses of God.

Two PNC-led coalition people could speak up, break out. But not one PPP member sees anything out of place, knows anything that looks iffy, or tricky. Guyana under the PPP is not a democracy. It is a theocracy. Meaning, governance by god(s). Four and a half years and four and a half trillions in budget dollars, and everything is straighter than straight. Are the PPP members in the National Assembly onto something, or are they into something? I believe that it is the former. So, there is all for one and one for all, and no loose lips that sink ships. Charrandas Persaud did try his hand and spoiled the baby party, but not a single PPP soul cutting their nose, going down that dark road. There are archbishops, pandits, and maulanas on the PPP’s side of parliament, and all of them see God. Sometimes it is a rectangular piece of paper with numbers on it. More often, it is Bharrat Jagdeo. They can be forgiven for losing voice, not locating conscience. So, it is left to people from the PNC-led coalition to speak to truth in Guyana. This is one hell of a funny town, I must admit.