OPINION: Speaker Nadir: first about unity, then what ruptures?

Last Updated on Tuesday, 4 November 2025, 20:29 by Writer

By GHK Lall

I think that returning Speaker of the House, the Hon. Mazoor Nadir, has some good in him. There isn’t any who doesn’t. The difficulty with the Speaker is that he finds some strange ways to manifest that goodness inside. He knows what it is, but struggles, is trapped. I feel sorry for him, and others of that same cohort, who allow their better instincts, the more graceful elements of their nature, to go wasting.

The Hon. Speaker pointed to Venezuela and the threats and provocations from that segment of Guyana’s horizon, and “how our unity is our strength and patriotism shield”. This is fantastic, and I recognize him as a kinsman. Anyone who takes offense at that posture of Guyana’s Speaker sets themselves up for the dismissal of being a moron without equal. “Unity is our strength” and then what Speaker Nadir does soon afterwards? He moves with zest and determination, as if in premeditation, to bring the first gathering of the 13th parliament to a premature end. I now must ask the Speaker to be kind to me, as I start to distance from him.

The Speaker just spoke of unity from one side of his mouth, and, from the next, he brought parliament to a shuddering, jaw-dropping halt. Doors closed, everybody, go home. Why? Why, Mr. Speaker? For there was that impressive call to unity, now subject to so much distress, when there was a piece of unfinished business. A business, which because it was left hanging, ruptures the cry for unity. The business was that of the process of selecting a Leader of the Opposition. Surely, the Speaker had to have some speck of an idea—probably a whole school of them—that a great many in Guyana were watching and waiting for just such a process to start. Surely, Speaker Nadir, however limited he may be, should know that he made himself look smaller with that action, i.e., slamming the gavel and bringing the session to a less-than-smooth, satisfactory stop.

The magistrate ruled for bail. A fact on the books. Yet, it appears that Speaker Nadir carried on his parliamentary affairs, as though the We Invest in Nationhood (WIN) leader was languishing in some Guyana jail. I confess that this is puzzling for me: bail, but in jail, pursuant to how matters unfolded. No offense is meant to the Speaker, but has he arrogated to himself the right of running a higher court? On that timely and meaningful call from the Speaker’s heart for national unity, the leader of some 109,000 Guyanese voters is cast aside, as if they count for nothing. And when I include the non-eligible voting children of those 109,000 Guyanese who cast their ballot for the WIN leader, does the Speaker and his friends, all patriotic citizens, realize what they have done? In total, that could easily be 200,000 Guyanese who have just gotten a kick to their bottoms, as though they are troublesome stray dogs, and still the Speaker had the joy and duty to soar spiritedly about unity. A quarter of Guyana’s population isolated and ostracized, fooled around with through the farcical, and the Speaker of the House, exhorts Guyanese to be about national unity.

Unity or disunity? Constructive or destructive? Conducive to anger and acrimony, on the one hand, or serenity of the spirit and blind, dumb acceptance, on the other? I seek a helping word from Speaker Nadir. I am sure that he is quite capable of making the best representation for himself. Separately, but not altogether unrelatedly, there is empathy for Speaker Nadir. He has a fearsome task before him. It is to be fair-minded, clear-headed, and clean-spirited. For most men and women, those alone can be a mountain that is not climbable. Deters the strong from even thinking of making a start, much less moving to do so. To make matters even more demanding, Speaker Nadir has the weight of surrounding circumstances, overhead conditions, wrapping him a vise. In this pressure cooker, he must not only be fair, he must appear to be fair, and fiercely so.

Did Speaker Nadir play the clock, fiddled with, and failed to fire, the starting gun, so as not to get the Leader of the Opposition process going? There is that return court date of November 10th. Only he can give a straight answer, and I implore him to speak. Not as Speaker of the House. But as the patriotic and principled man that he should be, and of which I think he has much going for him. A cautionary note should guide Mr. Nadir. The words must be his own, and not from Office of the President. Please stand up, Mr. Speaker. Please speak, Speaker Nadir. With every good wish, I am GHK Lall speaking for Guyanese.