Anyone who has been the victim of lies fabricated to destroy his credibility, for whatever purpose, knows how painful and destructive to the soul every instance of such experiences can be. And there are still persons with old-world morality who refuse to become embroiled in ugly confrontations with protagonists who engineer situations designed to destroy the credibility and character of those who have greater visions and whose energies and resources are directed to more productive endeavours.
While there is hardly any human being in the world who has not told an untruth at some time or the other, even if it is to protect themselves or others, there are those who concoct fabrications with such utter cleverness – not for any great or grand purpose, but for destructive ones.
Rumour-mongers are prime examples of those whom are titillated by fabricating and spreading destructive tales, or who compromise with the truth to such an extent that it becomes a greater reality than the truth.
It is inconceivable and unconscionable the lengths some would go to destabilise the efforts and endeavours of others.
A case in point is the unending litany of fabrications by Christopher Ram and the Opposition elements, including the ‘opposition media’, whose animosity for Guyana’s former president, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, knows no bounds, and whose envy of a man who strides tall in the national and global arena has clearly been the causative factor for their loss of logicality and reason, to the extent that they are prepared to destroy every national developmental initiative that he has conceptualised, driven, and/or implemented..
Christopher Ram once had ambitions of becoming Guyana’s President through appointment. This was the ploy engineered to achieve high office through the back door, since by no stretch of the imagination could he enter any national electoral process and come out a winner. Like all other proponents of the acquisition of office through backdoor methods, this strategy also failed – abysmally, hence the sour grapes and the constant criticisms, allegations and accusations, on premises almost always grounded in nonsensical suppositions and balderdash. On his own admission he grounds his continuum of accusations on “conjectures.”
Publisher of Kaieteur News, Glenn Lall, also admitted to publishing “misinformation” supplied by (Opposition) politicians; and his Editor-in-Chief admitted to publishing untruths about the Finance and Education ministers, among others. They did this when they were cornered, but the harm they have caused this nation can never be undone, certainly not with a few words of forced apology hidden in the back pages of the Kaieteur News in inconspicuous language.
Immediately prior to the PPP/C acceding to the Government in October of 1992 no-one thought, certainly not the party that is currently the main Opposition, that this country could have been salvaged from the depths of destitution to which it had sunk prior to this current Government’s election to high office, and it is this consideration more than any other that led to the first free-and–fair elections – well, sort of, to be held in Guyana in decades.
With the inheritance of decayed social and physical infrastructures, and US$2.1 billion dollars of inherited external indebtedness that saw almost l00 percent of national income going to merely service that indebtedness, it became imperative that the new administration source assistance to begin the Herculean feat of restoring some degree of viability to any endeavour at national reconstruction, so that Guyanese could once more have hope for a future lived in their country where living, and not merely existing, could become a probability.
This was no mean feat, considering that this country had absolutely lost credibility with financial institutions and the world bodies that determined the criteria and direction of aid to developing countries.
But Dr. Cheddi Jagan and his young disciple, then a Junior Minister within the Ministry of Finance, later the respected President of Guyana, Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo, worked indefatigably and finally Guyana is on the road back to prosperity; and while we have a long road to travel to emerge out of the infrastructural, social, and fiscal abyss inherited by this current Government in 1992, Guyana has come far enough that Guyanese are no longer perceived as being on the last rung of the development ladder.
Rather, through the superlative efforts of Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo and the PPP/C administration – currently headed by veteran politician Mr. Donald Ramotar, Guyana would remain a largely independent state and not return to the era of colonisation, which would have been the eventuality if the European-driven EPA had not been restructured to accommodate concerns raised and championed by Guyana’s former Head-of-State.
But the PPP/C is damned if it does, and damned if it does not, because the opportunistic posturing of the ambitious contenders for the Presidential portfolio prefer to demoralise than build so that this country of ours could aspire to and achieve the fullness of its potential development dimensions.
The Donald Ramotar Government was raring to continue the national development that had been set on a steeply upward trajectory by its predecessor; only to face the vengeful wrath of the Opposition collective, who have been enabled through their parliamentary one-vote/one-seat majority to disable Government’s developmental programmes.
However, a governmental construct that could rescue and rebuild a devastated Guyana from the ravages of hurricane PNC could certainly strategise to circumvent the socio-economic tsunami driven by Guyana’s Opposition cabal.