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I lost hope in Guyana

Feb 15, 2013 Letters

Dear editor
Four weeks ago, I attended Parliament and the debate was on the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations with Cuba. It was a rare occasion: all parliamentarians were in agreement.
What I heard during that debate deeply disturbed, troubled and made me lose hope and faith in Guyana’s future. I’ve been attending the National Assembly regularly, and it was one of the rare times that all three parties (PPPC, APNU, and AFC) agreed unanimously during a debate.
All the parliamentarians agreed that Fidel Castro is one of the greatest leader s in history, and Cuba is one of the greatest countries in the world.
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and was dumbfounded. All the parliamentarians of Guyana agreed that Fidel Castro is a great leader and that Cuba is a great country. And here is the part that made me lose my hope and faith in this country’s future. It was when the ministers said that Guyanese should follow in the footsteps of Mr. Castro and Cuba.
While I agree that Cuban has made contributions to Guyana by providing medical expertise and training to Guyanese, the parliamentarians never mentioned that Mr.Castro is a dictator, and Cubans are not free. They only mentioned the good things about Mr. Castro and Cuba.
In addition, they didn’t mention that over the years, hundreds of thousands of Cubans have run away from Cuban to be free. They never mentioned that the island of 11 million people suffered decades of economic deterioration. They never mentioned that in the last 50 years Cubans weren’t permitted to buy and sell homes and cars among themselves.
Furthermore, they never mentioned that for the past 50 years Cubans had to get permission from Mr. Castro to leave Cuba. In other words, Cubans weren’t free to leave as they like. Cubans had to ask their father (Mr. Castro) to leave Cuba.
Moreover, they never mentioned that Cuba doesn’t permit freedom of speech, press, or free elections, and it doesn’t have a democratically elected government. They never mentioned that Cuba remains a repressive society, which embraced a totalitarian brand of communism.
The lesson that I learned on that day in the National Assembly was that it doesn’t matter which party (PPPC, APNU, AFC) holds power, that party will be leading this nation in the footsteps of Cuba. And that, my friend, made me lose hope and faith in Guyana’s political leaders and ultimately in Guyana as a nation.
Anthony Pantlitz

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