Latest update February 23rd, 2025 1:40 PM
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- Miner dies after tree stump falls on head
- Drunken businessman shoots wife dead during argument
- Taxes collected by Bahamas on Guyana’s oil will soon outweigh our total earnings – Chris Ram
- Gov’t ignores concerns, reappoints Director, members of Environmental Assessment Board for 3rd consecutive year
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With democracy, one size doesn’t fit all
– EU Ambassador says on leaving Guyana
Outgoing European Union Ambassador, Geert Heikens, has had the black water and the labba – the proverbial guarantee that he will return to Guyana – and in fact, he wants to. He wants to see what it would be like in five years.
Heikens has spent four and a half years in Guyana, time he describes as truly ‘fantastic.’ In fact, during that time, he has witnessed what he describes as a ‘remarkable change’ in Guyana. He links this change, this ‘progress,’ to the construction boom, increased traffic, and bustling new housing schemes.
Ambassador Geert Heikens gestures at a press conference Friday.
He pins the progress, too, to an improved presence on the international scene, with Guyana holding the presidency of the Union of South American Nations, and with increased attention to the solid low carbon initiative President Bharrat Jagdeo has put forward as a model of how standing forests could mitigate climate change and still be used to increase wealth.
Heikens has taken time to appreciate the beauty of Guyana, and he has seen what most Guyanese have not – the beautiful Cock-of-the-Rock, the Jaguar and the Golden Frog.
And, he has had the ‘delicious’ 15-year-old rum.
Heikens has also taken a good look at the country’s architectural heritage, and as he leaves Guyana, he put in a pleading of “please, please, please” for them to be preserved.
This week, as he hosted a farewell press conference at the EU Delegation’s Office in Georgetown, Heikens did not allow himself to be drawn into discussing the problems in Guyana.
He suggested that what is democratic in other nations should not be used as a yardstick to define democracy in Guyana.
As far as Heikens is concerned, with democracy one size doesn’t fit all.
He describes Guyana as a young democracy that emerged out of “the dark days” just about 20 years ago.
Heikens considers the Guyana constitution “fantastic” with a “free press,” and was quick to counter when journalists laughed at this suggestion, pointing to situations in other places, even if this went against his own earlier suggestion that with democracy one size doesn’t fit all.
He alluded to the country having four newspapers, while he put the government maintaining its monopoly on radio as a “different issue.”
Heikens indicated that tension in the society could be eased if there is a “crossing over” of political parties, meaning a willingness to cooperate with each other, to end divisiveness.
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