Dear Editor
THE Parliament or National Assembly, whichever is described, is the constitutionally designated place where the elected representatives of the people meet for the purpose of discussing the affairs of the nation; or in simple terms, the business of the people.

It is a legitimate responsibility that each of its participants, properly designated Members of Parliament, would have accepted, and fully cognisant of its solemn understanding.
As members of parliament, it is a legitimate expectation by the people who they represent that they should exhibit the highest standards of propriety at all times. Members are expected to be accountable to the electorate and to serve with honesty and integrity in the best interests of Guyana.

This is a very key aspect, because of the more than mixed opinion which citizens, in general, tend to have about the conduct of politicians, which consensually point to the fact that they are a category which cannot be trusted. This mostly centres on the perennially known issue of politicians making promises which they do not fulfil for one reason or the other. Of course, representatives of the people have a right to fulfil their promises, but when unable to do so, they are obligated to explain to those who they represent.

But do politicians have the right to lie? And must lies be accepted as part of the moral behaviour of politicians, inclusive of members of parliament?
It is one thing for politicians to lie, which must not be accepted; but to do so within the august environment of a National Assembly/Parliament is at best disrespectful to the dignified assembly of the House, to the nation; and to those whom they represent – the people.

Any politician who is prepared to lie, without due recourse to, or consideration of the consequences, is one who intends to secure power at any and at all costs. And it is doubly dangerous when such a highly odious line is taken in a country where there are the problems of race and ethnicity. It is a recipe for strife, deepening the fissures already in existence, pushing any efforts of unity and cohesion further away from the grasp of a hopeful nation and citizens, while at the same time, sowing the seeds of further strife, fear, and division.

Guyana, a nation where ethnicity and race has been a constant [hindrance] in its modern political life, and continues to be a life-sapping hindrance to its efforts at nation-building, has been witnessing an unprecedented avalanche of lies, dangerous in its construct, by a political opposition determinedly bent on discrediting the government, in its efforts at socio-economic programmes for rebuilding communities, the lives of its citizens, and the country in the process.

These are horrible lies, for what their wicked framers have set out to achieve. A few examples will suffice.
It is astonishing that financial figures for presidential visits abroad had been monstrously distorted to reflect a one-billion-dollar sum, since 2015, when the actual sum has been much lower. And this shocking example was represented by an opposition MP who would have had recourse to the actual financial sums before he stood up to make his budget presentation.

Then there was another shameless presentation of total dishonesty and deceptive lies when an Opposition MP recently reported that it was the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) that sold rice farmers on the Essequibo coast a degraded quality of paddy which did not offer any growth to the purchasing farmers for their rice crop. Subsequent investigations not only exposed his lies, but also pointed to the fact that it was his Rice Producers Association (RPA) which sold the faulty seedlings to the farmers, had received complaints from them, but has not reimbursed the planters their money to date.

There was even a prominent Region Six MP, during a parliamentary presentation, who uttered the unproven story of domestic violence, murders and suicides taking place in his region, because of workers being terminated from GuySuCo. Adding to this deception was the even more dangerous one that the government had decided to sever workers from the sugar industry because they were Indo-Guyanese. Certainly, this grave lie excluded the fact that African-Guyanese workers were also affected. And the list can go on for numerous examples, both in and out of the National Assembly, by MPs from the political opposition whose main strategy has been to concoct lies in all its deceptive forms, in their dangerous mission to assume power at all costs.

These persons cannot, in fact, be responsible representatives of the people. Nor can they be seen as acting in the best interests of the nation, even if they may believe to be doing so on behalf of their constituents. In fact, not only are they disrespecting the Assembly because of their dishonest statements within, but also are guilty of using the House for highly dubious purposes via conduct that prejudices the honour of the House.
Politicians who emit such dangerous lies, especially within the sanctum of a National Assembly anywhere, not only disrespect the mission for which such bodies have been established, but also the nation and its people. They discredit themselves in the eyes of the citizens, and distrusted.

Regards
Dillon Goring