AFTER spending “donkey years” in Guyana’s politics, I am still to digest the sudden acclimation of moral values in Guyana. I am still to fully understand the demand for Bishop Edghill’s resignation as minister because of the MV Barima ferry tragedy. All the advocates have rationalised their resignation demand because it is the morally right thing to do.
Well, pardon me, but after those “donkey years” in Guyanese politics, I am still to see the manifestation of moral values in the citizenship of this country. Within that context, I don’t think the advocates of the Bishop’s resignation have a moral basis for their request.
You cannot argue for the minister’s resignation without context. In life, context is everything. If our politics had a moral foundation and that moral compass existed in the bosom of Guyana’s politicians, then the demand for the minister’s resignation would have formed part of the natural make up of the society.
If anything society is devoid of in this country, it is a moral rampart. And the absence of this ethical fulcrum is ubiquitous. I have lived in Guyana for seven decades, and when it comes to the politics of moral obligation, I do not see it. I go so far as to say elephants can be seen more in Guyana than people who understand what moral values are.
A ferry goes down in the Atlantic for reasons that the country does not know as yet and there are quarters in Guyana that think the minister should do the right thing and resign. My problem with this “right thing” is to understand what it is. What is the right moral thing to do in Guyana?
I have counted several persons who want the Bishop to resign and all of them either agreed with attempts to rig the 2020 national elections or participated in the rigging, some of whom now sit in the National Assembly. The calls for the Bishop to resign have turned Guyana into a circus where the clowns are so hilarious that you can hurt yourself from excessive laughter.
One of the first persons to request the exit of the minister is the former Mayor of Georgetown, Hindu pandit Ubraj Naraine. Three times this man looked me in my eyes on the Freddie Kissoon Show and said to me, “I don’t know about any election rigging in 2020.” Such a person is so overflowing with an understanding of moral righteousness that, using that righteousness, he wants Edghill to do the morally right thing and resign.
It was unheard of in the history of the CARICOM region that prisoners burned down to the ground, the entire edifice of the central jail and no minister resigned because of that. It happened in Guyana. The very people who want Edghill to resign, I repeat, the very people support Vincent Alexander and his two APNU commissioners in GECOM to stay in office because there is no law that allows for their removal. Under which law there is a basis for Edghill’s removal when no evidence has been produced to implicate him in the ferry disaster.
An opposition leader, Aubrey Norton, saw his parliamentary seats reduced from 32 to 12, but the man says he sees no moral reason to resign. None of the advocates for the minister to leave have told Mr. Norton that the morally right thing to do is to resign.
There is Mr Lincoln Lewis, who requested the then sitting President of Guyana to cancel the results of the 2020 general and regional elections, which the incumbent lost. It was a horrible insult to the constitution of Guyana. I didn’t see the anti-Edghill school bus request his resignation as General Secretary of the TUC. Mr Lewis was charged with assaulting a woman half his size. I didn’t see the anti-Edghill bandwagon demand he leave his TUC post.
A recording was released of Mr Christopher Ram saying things in his UG classroom that were definitely not appropriate. UG retained Mr Ram, and Mr Ram continued teaching the same class, which was the recipient of his words. And finally, Mr Azruddin Mohamed.
I have heard or read that anyone on the anti-Edghill bandwagon has asked for a commission of inquiry into the deportment, action, and morally questionable life of the opposition leader in Guyana. The man’s name is linked to a homicide. This is my sixth column on the ferry tragedy, and I want to leave it at six, because I want to run from witnessing the desecration of the souls of the victims of the ferry disaster. Their loved ones do not deserve to see their bodies being sacrificed on the altar of moral turpitude.
I hope I can meet with Mr Edghill in his office tomorrow to get him to do something on the UG road where motorists can easily drive into the trench. It is bound to happen.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.