Guyanese Online

NY Gov Andrew Cuomo

Mar 11, 2021  Editorial – Kaieteur News – New York State Governor, Andrew Cuomo, provides a case study of a leader at the top, who can do no wrong, and was seemingly politically invincible.

That is, until he is alleged to have done huge wrongs, which are now becoming public for the first time, according to the allegations so far lodged. The governor is but the latest example of a man unravelling quickly, leaving him to scramble around to pick up the pieces. He has his work cut out for him, and look a lesser figure, as the days pass.   

The governor is alleged to have covered up the true number of nursing home deaths from the COVID-19 virus in New York State, and by a wide margin. Of the over 15,000 nursing home deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is alleged that “the state’s health department had logged just over 8,550 fatalities” (BBC, February 25). That amounts to underreporting by almost 40 percent, or to put another way, not reporting two out of every five deaths from the virus. According to media reports, “a top aide to Mr. Cuomo confessed to covering up the real numbers and withholding the information out of concern that the data ‘was going to be used against us’” (“Lindsay Boylan accusations: why is NY Governor Andrew Cuomo under pressure?” BBC February 25).

It is bewildering that a man who was widely hailed as the kind of leader needed during the height of the pandemic and because of his response has sunk to this low. The questions are: how much did he know about what went on? Was he in some manner behind the deliberate fudging of the nursing home numbers? And what could he have hoped to have gained from such massaging of the facts? Whatever he did or didn’t know or did or didn’t do, Governor Cuomo has taken a hit, and he comes across as cheap and low to be in the midst of something as scandalous as engaging in (or allowing) manipulations of pandemic fatality figures.

He made a good start at taking responsibility by saying that it was his “mistake” in hiding the numbers, but then lost some goodwill when he used a hedge word that feels sick. It was when Governor Cuomo said that the true numbers were “delayed.” We think that he looked sick and made his believers sicker. It sounded lame and he took too long to come clean, and it still looks incomplete. The fact that he has ordered an independent investigation is helpful, but he has an uphill struggle to undo what could be lasting political damage, with credibility shattered.

However, he emerges from this scandal; his leadership prospects certainly took a deep dive, as compared to a few months ago, when he was riding the crest of waves of admiration and popularity. His name was bandied about, and seriously, as a possible presidential presence in the last elections, and as definitely one, who would be at the head of the pack and to be watched for 2024. Now, though still highly thought of by New Yorkers, on the national scene he lunches on ashes. It is a textbook example of how the mighty can fall fast in societies that hold their leaders accountable.

As if the nursing home fiasco is not, there was first one allegation of sexual harassment, which was followed in short order by a second; now there are six accusers. Thus, the once high-flying governor is forced to navigate a way out of a fierce thunderstorm. His accusers have a credible air about them, and his enemies are going to make sure that he does not quickly forget about them, or that they fade away from the public center, like they do here in Guyana.

Here leaders shrug and move on at the nuisance of it all. The mighty are untouchable, a caste all by themselves. Leaders run interference (protection rackets) for glaringly errant subordinates, while blinded supporters could care less whatever either does. Covering up of the facts is established culture, and withholding information is now a settled practice of old governments and this new one. Allegations of sexual harassment, which are swiftly suppressed, brings a wink and nod from the political people, and a bored yawn from the public. After all, boys will be boys, and leaders are inviolate, no matter how and what they violate. In Guyana, the mighty are not made to fall, they grow mightier.