How many scandals involving Guyana Members of Parliament and women not named Simona Broomes can you recall?
There was a time when there was a classiness and respectability that attended the office of Member of Parliament but to mention that would be exposing that damning affliction of ‘absurd puritanical standards’ – a taunt that is deployed in defense of those stricken with a reverse measure of propriety, so encumbered by the burden of etiquette and good form that they relapse into being themselves.
Maybe it’s the complexity of Coalition governing but what is ever emerging from this mix of politicians is a soup of ideology and ideological contradiction that just, flatly, disappoints.
The Broomes ingredient comes with an overwhelming pungency that incites defence from those with a curious level of vigor to maintain her innocence – while trying to convince us that the principle and elegance that should be rubbing off from President Granger hasn’t been subsumed by the unvarnished behavior that now defines his side of the Coalition; causing the electorate and its supporters due alarm at the pattern of infraction -and- pretend that has become the pendulum swing of the larger arm of this government.
It was curious, this drum beat of tribal defense on social media that found strategy in juxtaposing Ms. Broomes’ humanity and her vulnerability to errors, with a veneration of what she has, professedly, done for Guyana.
Many were not convinced, thinking that some gifts ought to be given back and for the greater good, irrespective of their nature … so these defenders of Broomes, as a matter of ‘principle’, released what is, purportedly, the criminal record of the security guard who was so threatening and intimidating to them that Ms. Broomes and her driver rushed out of their vehicle, in the face of death threats, as these evil men cocked their weapons and pointed them at their bodies in menacing manner.
The fear, the trauma, Broomes and her driver must have been feeling…and let me add disrespect because that’s another emotion those cuddling Team Broomes on social media are bandying around with lots of contempt.
But we mention driver and wonder why this man, whose animation in the security footage hardly conveyed a cowering and compliant victim being frightened by a criminal of American prison repute, no less. We were even more curious as to why he was constantly referred to in the news only by his occupation, driver and not by name, like the bullying gun -pointing guard who we learned is named Goodluck and some other name, from the news organs that carried this sordid story.
So we looked around and found that the driver of Ms. Broomes comes with dual functionality and because we’re not in the tabloid business, we won’t print what other functions he performs and at taxpayers’ expense. But we have learned that the barrel of Goodluck’s gun may not have been the first and only one he has stared down.
We were informed, from sources that we will not name, that the Driver is one, Dexter David, who goes by the name Boogie Dex(x) sometimes with an extra x to add to the boogie; that he is more than well acquainted with Roger Khan and the Phantom Squad that terrorized Guyana for years under the Jagdeo/ Gajraj Home Affairs security belt, that he worked for a prominent Minister in the current government for a while and in a capacity that we will not mention, was then transferred to another reputable Ministry that is known on the international stage and was then transferred to Ms. Broomes who seems to be quite pleased with/by his driving. Reportedly, he has had run ins with the local law and putatively, there are records that can be accessed for confirmation.
This may explain why so many halos were circled around the heads of Team Broomes by conversely, vilifying the security guards. What could be unpacked here in the character of Boogie Dex(x) could constitute irreparable damage to the image and membership of APNU, as it edges closer to elections. Maybe it will be part of the agenda of its upcoming Congress.
Broomes’ presence is becoming one of the Party’s greatest weaknesses, as leaders are constantly forced to figure how to deal with her. This isn’t an ambush, or mere bad behavior. This is a siege and by an intruder whose ransom seems to come at a crippling cost …
Not once did the public, that sits beyond the arc of Partisan polarization, see the withering attacks on the two Guards as an explanation of “what really happened”. Instead, what those attacks, that were crafted with venom and delivered with bile, did, was alienate a swing segment of voters and supporters who are standing on the line dividing the two major parties.
I voted for Jagdeo twice, said one woman, once to vote him in and once to vote him out because he had become what I never wanted the face of my country to be.
There’s a silence that sounds a lot like immorality coming from A Partnership for National Unity, that allows its extended tentacles to stand in the gap in the name of Party protection. The social media assassins are hardly Svengali. Their contribution to defense is staggeringly inappropriate but so common place that it is becoming their Party’s brand- especially when the heads of the Party remain quiet and allow such damaging defenses to permeate.
There may be strategy in making these defenders feel like puppet masters, even if theirs is a bit part and at a time specific. Such fluctuating relevance takes the spotlight off the main players and keeps the overseas fundraising going.
Politics is still a prostitute’s game .
Amidst all this political muck, though, we shouldn’t forget that, at least, one politician, Raphael Trotman, was sensitive enough to inform the public that the Broomes matter was to be raised in cabinet. We haven’t heard if that was done but what we have heard since is that Guard Buckley has lost his livelihood because of a law which may be well intended but may never have been applied to this hapless man but for his dubious encounter with the illustrious Broomes…
…who remains in Parliament and has now become the face of her Party, President Granger and his legendary impeccability.
And while the leaders of the Party of Broomes allow their tentacles to play war games on social media, the swing voters, their supporters and some of the APNU die hards are reconsidering their alliance with them…assessing their complicity, how their silence has made them an ally to those who, with wicked glee and for compensation yet to be exposed, skewered a member of the electorate to distract from the ‘untruths’ of their candidate.
The survival of Guyana’s democracy is now acutely imperiled, maybe even effectively dismantled under this Government that ran on shutting down government overreach and political fear mongering…the forerunners of political entrenchment by political strong men whose silence was the effective nod of approval.
With oil on the horizon and a Constitution reform that remains behind the start line three years into this government, the electorate remains a reflection away from the 23 years of the previous administration and the signs of infidelity in the love affair they had established with this government.
The decapitation of the sacrificial lamb, Mr. Goodluck, for Broomes’ atonement, takes them back even further, too, to the days of political strongmen and their soulless minions who lorded over the nation by driving fear.
The clock has been turned back.
It is ambitious for any Party to think that it has the numbers or any aid to victory that the electorate is not prepared to challenge.
And it is suicide to think that denying a person his constitutional right as laid out in Chapter II 22(1) of the country’s Constitution:
Every citizen has the right to work and its free selection in accordance with social requirements….
is okay, by selectively applying a law in desecration of the country’s system of justice to vindicate an errant politician, whose serial disregard for the rule of law and the probity of order falls consistently short of severe reprimand.
This one has breached the dam of tolerance…
