ONE refers to Chairperson of the Guyana Elections Commission(GECOM), retired Justice Claudette Singh’s, quote, “Only one way I know and that is the correct way…there are so much[sic] negative things in the newspapers. I will not sell my integrity for all the oil in Guyana. It’s [the] only way I know it and that is the only way I will deliver credible elections,” News Source, January 20, 2020, Headlined, “GECOM Chair defends integrity following criticism from Opposition Leader.”
Apart from the fact that this statement is the firmest of declarations so far, made by the authoritative chairperson of GECOM Justice Singh, that she intends to deliver on her constitutional mandate, it speaks a million truths in terms of what has been occurring in this society, from since May 2015, but particularly from the seminal date of December 21, 2019.
Of course, as one with so many decades of impeccable service as a member of the local judiciary, and who should have been chief justice, but for the narrow mindedness of the executive at the time when her recommendation had to be decided, she is clear in her statement that her integrity cannot be bought, or be subverted for any offer, not even the lure of the oil dollar.
Editor, this nation has witnessed so many personalities of former moral rectitude who once stood on the high pulpit of national correctness, doing some astonishing somersaults, in supporting first, an opposition party, which policies when formerly in government, they had condemned in good principle; and, secondly, which political bandwagon they have subsequently joined, in seeking to remove a duly elected government.
How do they explain, their fullest public support for a former political party’s government, now in opposition, which criminalised the state, can only best be understood by their indecent haste to do so? There have been other inferences as to the role of oil, corrupting the good consciences of many persons, who were known and respected for their high public morality, published in your columns. But the Guyana Elections Commission(GECOM) Chairperson’s is one of the very few made at such a very senior level of state.
And about the negativity of the media – an absolutely undisputed view, about a very important component of democracy, which some of its parts continue to be guilty of the grossest acts of media distortion, fake news, and accommodation of some of the most heinous acts of crooked interpretations of the law for political ends, ever witnessed in this country.
This particular segment has shamelessly been pandering, continuing to do so, to dangerous partisan political ends for a price that is not worth the eternal damage that it has done to traditional media: being the political public relations mouthpiece for politicians whose service to country is the worst to have been recorded in the annals of CARICOM. Using its traditional position of influence, the vested interest and politically aligned media has been very instrumental in allowing its pages to publish some of the most outrageous lies mouthed by the very cabal that is guilty of pillaging this country. Even GECOM has not been spared, or its past chairperson, and also the current Justice Singh, from the media attempts propagating sensationalism and muckraking to denigrate its constitutional authority. This is what one believes could be drawn from the above statement, as quoted – the integrity and moral souls of men, bought and all lost, cheaply for a pint of oil.
Regards
Earl Hamilton
