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Reception Fallout…PPP executive prepared Manickchand’s 4th of July statement — Source
By Gary Eleazar
Priya Manickchand, acting in the capacity of Foreign Affairs Minister, was on Wednesday evening vociferously booed and heckled while speaking at a function held at the residence of the US Ambassador, Brent Hardt, but sources in Government believe that the core issue is being ignored.
Kaieteur News, speaking with a senior Foreign Affairs pundit on the condition of anonymity, has learnt that Manickchand did not herself pen the statement she read.
Minister Priya Manickchand toasts with US Ambassador Brent Hardt
This publication was told that whichever government official that would have represented the administration at the function would have had to read the same statement.
It was pointed out that Manickchand is largely known for making presentations without the use of pre-prepared statements such as the one prepared for her to read on Wednesday evening.
According to a Government source, the administration is of the view that the Ambassador crossed the proverbial red line, when he launched personal attacks directly on the President at the function hosted by Blue Caps on Monday last at Duke Lodge.
It was pointed out too that a great many of those in the audience that booed the Minister were ranks in the opposition or affiliates. The official opined that 100 persons at a function do not represent the views of the Guyanese populace.
Government, according to the source, holds firm to its position that Ambassador Hardt was disrespectful to the President and therefore the people of Guyana.
The government, the source said, is extremely concerned about, essentially, his call to rise up against the administration. This statement was qualified by pointing to Ambassador Hardt’s reference to how the US gained its freedom rising up against King George.
The source said too that Government believes that it is justifiable and further is an enshrined right for Guyanese to call for the holding of local government elections and not the US Ambassador.
It was pointed out that persons should take a breath and analyse the issues at hand and not react emotionally to what is transpiring.
Government, the source said, stands firm in its belief that it is not the role of diplomats to meddle in internal politics of a sovereign state.
In recent weeks, the row between the ruling Peoples Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) administration and the US Diplomat has been escalating to what transpired on Wednesday evening at the Ambassador’s residence, a reception meant to celebrate a US Independence Anniversary.
The Minister amidst boos and heckling, told those gathered that Ambassador Hardt’s most recent assault on the President and Government of Guyana in his remarks to the recently created NGO, the Blue Caps, “has in our judgment, gone beyond the boundaries of professionalism and diplomacy….For a professional Foreign Service Office, with the appointment of an Ambassador, to make such declarations, accusations, allegations and innuendos about the Executive President of Guyana, or of any country for that matter, is to our mind, totally unacceptable.”
Following Manickchand’s speech, several influential persons have sought to distance themselves from her comments, saying she does not speak for them.
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