…no shame, Mr Granger?
David Granger wears his religion on his sleeves (and on his knees!), so he should know about the meaning of “shame”. It’s illustrated in his Bible as foundational to the formation – and preservation – of human society. We’re told that in the beginning, Adam and Eve stood together ‘both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed’. And then they ate of the tree of knowledge; their eyes opened; they knew they were naked; they covered themselves with fig leaves. It was their shame that told God they had fallen and become humans of our sort.
Shame is the emotion that makes us humans signal, first to ourselves and then the world, that we know we’ve done something wrong, something dishonourable that violates our sense of decency. It’s a regulatory emotion of the self. A seminal turning point in modern American history occurred when Senator McCarthy was conducting his witch-hunt for Communists in public life – in which he ruined the reputation of thousands – but had made him into one of the most powerful men in America. Finally, one of his interlocuters in a Senate hearing asked him a simple question, “Have you no decency, sir?”
That question stirred the inchoate outrage of the American people that had been seething at the bullyism of McCarthy. Very soon, he was censured by the Senate and his career ended ignominiously. On this Independence Day, 2020, your Eyewitness asks Brig (rtd) David Arthur Granger, who held the highest office in this land and is still the caretaker President of Guyana: “Have you no shame, sir? Have you no sense of decency? How much longer will you carry on with this blatant rigging of our elections that has brought so much dishonour on our nation?”
But the problem with shame, is that it can only arise when your actions conflict with your own internalised standards of decency or that of your group and you are exposed. The question arises, then, as to what are Granger’s and his group’s internal moral standards when it comes to holding on to power. And this is where we can answer our own question: Granger has no shame.
His internal standards were set by the Machiavellian Burnham, who preached that in politics, power trumps legitimacy any day. Granger just doesn’t give a damn about what the people – here or outside – think about rigging. His ends justify his means. One can say that, like hypocrisy (which Granger knows well!), shame is a compliment that vice pays to virtue.
But what can we do when shamelessness is the order of the day with Granger and the PNC?
We, the people, have to say, “Thus far and no further!”
…ever wondered about our Independence date?
There’s been controversy about today’s date being picked as our Independence date ever since Burnham and company went up to the Independence Conference that was the dénouement of their sordid plot to oust the PPP from office. As part of their drive to seize power by any means necessary, the PNC was willing to tear Guyana asunder (to this day) by extending the canker of violence into Guyanese politics.
Now is not the time to tear the scabs from those old sores, but there needs to be a national discussion on the issue of May 26 and what it signifies. If we don’t, we stand in danger of having those sores exploding ever so often around election time – and as Langston Hughes reminded us, the pus that comes out ain’t pretty at all. It’s almost three months after the elections and we still don’t have a result. How will it end??
Another round of “collateral damage” caused by the PNC in their obscene quest for power?
…wondered about our COVID spike?
In this COVID-19 pandemic, the saying “no man is an island” is brought home daily – but with a twist. Because of our connectedness, we’ve now become threats to each other’s lives!
