Dear Editor,
Today marks the penultimate Sunday before the “Silly Season” bids Guyana farewell until the next General Election, which will be constitutionally due in 2030. In Guyana, the silly season is referred to from the time election day is announced to the actual election date. The word “silly” is a descriptive word (adjective) and may be defined as “having or showing a lack of common sense or judgement”. The thesaurus has over 800 words as synonyms, including “foolish”, “absurd”, “ridiculous”, etc.
In the UK, the word “silly” may mean small and not important. Incidentally, the UK’s election period is referred to as “Purdah”. The word itself comes from the Persian word pardeh and is the root of parda, a Hindu-Urdu word meaning “curtain” or “veil”. The term refers to the social and religious practice of secluding women and keeping their bodies concealed, which is observed in some Muslim and Hindu communities in South Asia. In English, the term “purdah” has extended to mean any period of seclusion or isolation, such as the pre-election period for candidates in politics.
In the United States of America, “silly season” refers to the late summer months, generally in August and September, when news is scarce, leading media outlets to fill the void with trivial, light-hearted, or unusual stories instead of hard news. This period is also known as the “slow news season” or “cucumber season” in other countries, where a similar phenomenon of low news volume results in stories about record-breaking vegetables or other peculiar events.
But, in the US, the US president postponed time off from work and pushed on with his agenda as time ticked down on his second and final term. As per the “Telegraph Newspaper”, there is no silly season this year, according to David Urban, a former Trump campaign adviser and confidant. Some staffers have had to repeatedly postpone their own plans for a holiday or quietly make do with a snatched day off here or there. That kind of summertime ennui is a distant memory now that Donald Trump has returned to power. “He’s killed it off,” he said. “There is no downtime in this administration.”
Incidentally, President Ali promised more work and less time out for his administration in his next term in office. “The next Cabinet will not know what a holiday feels like… They have to be prepared to work 24/7.” This was further endorsed by the projected accomplishments to be realised, listed in the PPP/C’s election manifesto. Meanwhile, in his weekly broadcast on Thursday, Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo has forewarned that “various arms of Government, such as the judiciary and local authorities, will have to be more accountable for their performances in the years ahead.” He further stressed that, “They have to do a better job at doing the things they are equipped to do and are mandated to do.”
Parliament has had to endure many “silly” incidents during the last two terms, from 2015 to 2020 and 2020 to 2025. During Granger’s stint, APNU/AFC took the Treasury and this country to the cleaners when numerous political matters were erroneously referred to the courts and the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). They were all frivolous, vexatious and considered an abuse of the court’s process. This country has had to pay dearly and costly for the APNU/AFC’s recklessness, carelessness and “don k dam” (don’t give a damn) attitude.
APNU/AFC exposed their absurd and anarchic silliness when the CCJ slammed the door on them for their claim that 33 is not the absolute majority of 65. The CCJ again debunked their atrocious and arrogant insistence that Granger’s controversial and unilateral appointment of James Patterson as GECOM Chairman was constitutionally correct. Again, the CCJ defied and made fun of the 2020 election matters presented and made a laughing stock of the APNU/AFC noxious and odorous defence. Shame had no name for their perpetual portrait of puerile preposterousness!
APNU/AFC did not learn any lesson from their mistakes and misguidance through the tutorship from their learnt counsels such as Williams, Hughes, Trotman, Janjat, Forde and Desir. Their illogic and idiotic intervention was advertised when 8 of their MPs were reprimanded for snatching and seizing the Speaker’s mace in Parliament, injuring and assaulting a member of the Parliament staff and using racist terms such as “slave…”
Those suspended without salary were Sherod Duncan, Christopher Jones, Ganesh Mahipaul, Viceroy Jordan, Annette Ferguson, Natasha Singh-Lewis, Maureen A Philadelphia, and Tabitha Sarrabo-Halley. Such vicious and vulgar vicissitude from the APNU/AFC Parliamentarians is both laughable and lamentable!
The constant walking out by the APNU/AFC Parliamentarians when it is time to pass budgets, projects, other litigative matters or actions in defence of the country underlines the unreasonable and unintelligent insanity of their thoughtless goofiness. Are the APNU, AFC and WIN chilled or in collusion with the mad Maduro? Being asinine towards the PPP/C is anticipated, but being acidic towards the nation’s interest is daffy and dotish!
Ho-ho, and now we have the adventurous and avaricious Forward Guyana Movement (FGM), led by an acetous but audacious Amanza Walton-Desir, at a perilous and petrified last moment, attempting to join company with her once Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs in shooting herself in the foot by exposing an imposition of legal limitations. Oh, the fluttery and fruity foolishness of “five find outers” is not the same as that fancied by the author Enid Blyton.
This week will terminate the 2025 “Silly Season” period in Guyana. But reflecting on the lifestyle of parties, politicians, Parliamentarians and people, Guyanese will not be able to avoid saying “Don’t be silly” on some of their comments, compliments, commitments and comedies!
Yours sincerely,
Jai Lall
