The government is ignoring its foreign resources

Aug 06, 2009 Editorial

It is amazing that Guyana, for all its years of diplomatic skills that won the hearts of various international leaders, keeps making mistakes that some secondary school children would not make. It is failing to use resources at its disposal to its own detriment.
Beginning last week, a local television broadcaster and reporter, Enrico Woolford, has been reporting from the United States, the goings on in the court as they relate to the trial of former Shaheed Khan, Attorney Robert Simels. Simels is on trial for witness tampering and for being in possession of illegal communication equipment.

Shaheed Roger Khan was also implicated in the witness tampering charge and he has opted to plead guilty in a plea-bargaining arrangement with the United States federal authorities. Simels, on the other hand, is making a defence of the charge.
But even before Simels or even Khan had to go to trial, there were people here who knew that Guyana would have been put on trial. Politicians and commentators alike have been concluding that the government was in cahoots with Roger Khan, a self-confessed drug dealer.
Indeed, the United States refused to make such a charge but actions by the diplomats here and the federal authorities suggested otherwise. No longer did the United States seek the extradition of Guyanese suspected of trafficking in drugs to the United States; no longer did the diplomats seek to help the Guyana Government with information leading to the possible interdiction of Guyana-based drug dealers.
There were indictments posted on the public court records that sought to implicate Guyanese and some members of the Guyana Government. Some were statements by the very Robert Simels who is now on trial. As could be expected, the government denied any involvement, not even when a confidential witness insisted on such a liaison.

These things have been repeated during the Simels trial and once more there is the brouhaha in Guyana with the political opposition going for the jugular and demanding investigations into the reports coming out of the United States. The government is contending that it cannot hold an investigation based on newspapers reports. It has a case here; it is insisting that it be provided with official evidence—evidence procured and transmitted by the United States Government.
But the government need not have to wait on the United States Government to provide the evidence that is being unveiled in the Brooklyn courtroom. Guyana has a mission in New York, complete with a Consular team headed by Consular General Brentnol Archer. Surely, the government should have had its representative in the courtroom.

In Guyana, whenever an American appears in the courts, the embassy dispatches a staff member to monitor the proceedings and that is how it should be. Missions and embassies have a right to monitor the interests of the citizens of the countries from which they came.
However, Guyana did not see it fit to have a member of its consular staff in the Brooklyn courtroom. Instead, the government is critical of the news reports appearing in the local press. The spokespersons go even further; they abuse the person filing the reports, suggesting that there should have been selective reporting in favour of the government and the country.
One would have expected that the government would have, had the occasion presented itself, been in a position to present what would have purported to be an accurate report of the events. There would have been no need for recriminations and hostility.

The government also has a slew of reporters who could have been assigned, given the deep pockets of the state media houses, coupled with the support from Central Government. None of these things was done with the result that only private media operatives are reporting on the trial and the government is most unhappy.
It is time for the government to make use of its resources; it is also time for the government to also stop being defensive in the fact of what appears to be critical reports. No government has ever been able to avoid criticisms and the Guyana Government surely would not be one of them.

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