Why the Caribbean does not like us. Part 99

Feb 10, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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I became a newspaper commentator in 1988 and in the few thousands of articles I have done, I must have penned a few dozens on why the people of the Anglophone West Indies are not enamoured with Guyanese and are quite happy to see us take our exit from the family of Caricom nations.
It is cricket that preserves the flickering spark of knowledge that West Indians have of this country. The reason why West Indians are turned off of Guyanese is a truly unjustified one.
Guyanese are treated with suspicion and are negatively whispered about throughout the region because the people of the English-speaking Caribbean hate our politicians and the political culture to which they are permanently attached. They had to take Jagan and his wild, maniacal obsession with communism from 1950 to 1964. They endured Burnham’s fascination with the politics of the Roman emperors. Now they see Jagdeo as the reincarnation of everything that is politically wrong with Guyana.
Make no mistake about it – World Cup Cricket and Carifesta did not bring in the enthusiasm the ruling politicians thought would have washed up on these shores during these periods. New Zealand fans stayed in St. Lucia, drank rum, partied and clubbed while their team was playing in Guyana.
The New Zealand commentator Ian Smith was happy to announce during his commentaries that the fans stayed away from Guyana. It was left to Colin Croft to ask him why. All Guyanese know why. Look at the individual numbers that came from each country for Carifesta. Only Suriname sent in an appreciable amount. You had six or seven from each participating country including our own Caricom neighbours.
Once we continue to practise Byzantine government with a centralized state that overall appear in the eyes of Caricom people to be a dictatorship, West Indian leaders and West Indian people will shun us. The Barbadian and Jamaican Prime Ministers were undiplomatically rude to President Jagdeo when they spoke to the press at the special meeting of Heads to decide on changes to the EPA.
Later, without apparent motive, PM Golding of Jamaica tore into Mr. Jagdeo accusing him of going all over the world and describing Guyana as a poor country that needs alms. The anti-Guyana sermon is a permanent song because the Caricom Secretariat is based here.
Only the Lord hears the quiet condemnations the foreign workers at the Secretariat echo all the time about us. One could just imagine when they look across from their office, see the tall four-storey square box that is the Caricom annexe costing the community US$50,000 monthly, they must say to themselves; “Boy dem Guyanese proper stupid.”
When you tell Caricom nationals that our University’s Vice-Chancellor was an election candidate twice and that we in Guyana have four Permanent Secretaries that belong to the leadership of the ruling party, they tell you how sorry they feel for us.
Now look at what is unfolding right in front the eyes of all West Indian citizens. An episode in Trinidad and an event in Guyana in relation to the same process occurred simultaneously. In T&T, members of the Integrity Commission resigned en bloc after they came under criticism from the judiciary. All of them were trained in law and accountancy.
Across in Guyana, the President appointed one of his party comrades to head the Commission.
This is Guyana, thirty-eight years after the Guyanese opposition parties, civil society actors and university academics traveled the length and breadth of the Caricom territories exposing Forbes Burnham as a dictator who did what he liked and as he pleased in Guyana.
And what do the people of Caricom see in 2009, thirty-eight years after the journey to denounce Burnham had begun? A leader who does exactly the same. By what logic could we expect our neighbours to have patience with us? They see our country as a doomed land.
No matter how many Carifestas we sponsor; international cricket competitions we host; bridges we build; natural resources we discover; or how much wealth the country has, Caribbean people will remain cynical about us because they think that Guyana has not been or is not a member of the democratic family of West Indian nations.
No matter how violent Jamaica and Trinidad are, they will attract more admiration from the region’s people because they know that Jamaica and Trinidad are democratic countries that have preserved the freedoms that the English left with us.
When the Caribbean looks down at Guyana and sees the scandals in which we are drowning, they don’t want to hear about Guyana much less see a Guyanese before their eyes.

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