Our Leaders must on important occasions choose their words with great care

Sep 12, 2013 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
We certainly can be deemed the greatest – Why? Let us examine the recent visit to Guyana by the President of our neighbour Venezuela and statements made by our own Head of State.
First when President Hugo Chavez visited, in 2004 – the M&CC was asked as is the tradition, and proudly hosted a civic reception, which allowed President Chavez, to interact with a large appreciative audience which included Government Ministers. It was great, Hugo Chavez was so energized by the environment at the Promenade Gardens that he spoke much longer than determined by the Programme. He dealt with the situation in the wider world of economics and politics; it was good, even to those who may not have shared all of his analysis.
On this visit the City was literally by-passed, except for the sirens along Mandela Avenue.  But the things we heard from our President are a bit troubling, and I refer to just one which is an embarrassment to all of us.
Our Head of State delivered with gusto his usual verbal salvos.  Likely, I hope, outside of a brief from his Minister of Foreign Affairs, President Ramotar referred to a border dispute – The matter of the claim to most of our Essequibo in the late 19th Century, was settled in 1899, how therefore, according to Mr. Ramotar, is it a relic of the Cold War.
Those of us in politics regard the Cold War as an international tension which started immediately after the end of World War II and ended in 1991.
I believe the term was coined by the English writer George Orwell – H.G Wells may have inspired an idea in 1945 after the two atomic bombs were dropped on the two Japanese Cities.
So how is this border matter a relic of the Cold War – a total non sequitur?
This border matter was settled by a globally recognized Tribunal Award in 1899, long before the term Cold War was even in our lexicon, certainly a term not used in the 18th-19th Century.
But beyond the faux pas, for us this is an issue that is settled, as the boys say ‘a done deal’. Mr. Ramotar to the best of my memory is the only President to refer to this Venezuela Claim as a ‘dispute’; we have no dispute, all of the territory we received from the British on May 26, 1966 is ours, end of story.
On these matters our Head of State need be the super patriot with no tincture of compromise.   It is this sort of thing that can see the lowering of national morale, and who knows, allow the visit this week of a Venezuela military outfit to Eteringbang.  The Eteringbang Falls being just one mile below Ankoko.  Did they lose their way?
Our Leaders must on important occasions choose their words with great care.
Mr. Burnham was once referred to by a high British Official as the ‘ambiguous Mr. Burnham’.  In a delicate situation or when you are the host, it is better to be so accused (but this calls for skills in the use of English) than what we heard.
Some of us have had cause to remind our friends from Venezuela that it was only when Independence was in the offing that, like Rip Van Winkle, they made a claim and, therefore the tacit acceptance for all these years that the 83,000 square miles we know as Guyana was all ours.
In November 1966, as we were enjoying the early days of Independence, Venezuela took over the whole of the Island of Ankoko.  Ankoko is an Island in the Cuyuni River opposite the mouth of the Wenamu Creek.  It is legally divided in two portions as a result of the settled British Guiana (UK) Venezuela boundary award of 1899, the Eastern half being the territory of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
The late Lloyd Barker, then a young Police Officer, was sent to certify our ownership, we know the rest.
Guyana is not for sale or short term lease by no set of persons – we must resist this insinuation. We need to know some things which will be part of my writing later.  We see evidence of this selling off of parts of Guyana, to dispossess our descendants of their patrimony.  This is unacceptable.
When war drums were beating on our Western Border – the late Mr. Jai Narine Singh who was highly regarded by Venezuela, offered through me, to visit Caracas to talk – President Burnham facilitated, because at the end of the day, peace is the better option. But the reality is, when we talk it must be with some ‘backings’… look at world history.
Only four persons knew that while we talked, with the help of certain friends from faraway places, we had solid military support mobilized and ready for action in an area of the North West.
Latin from Epitoma Rei Militaris by Vegetius says ‘If you want peace prepare for War’ – sad, but that is a reality.
Guyana was clear about our position, I recall thanks to the urgings of the late Pat Cameron our renowned great Guyanese, Dave Martins, influenced by conversations with an Amerindian Captain who fully supported our stance by saying “we must not give up anything that belongs to we”.  Mr. President, this was between 1964 and 1992 that an Amerindian patriot expressed those views.
Dave locked himself away in his hotel room and after some hours produced the fantastic and beautiful; ‘not a blade of grass’, in the late 1970s. This became a sort of an Anthem.  What the state-controlled Radio may have done for all of this period was to air ‘not a blade of grass’.  Softened by Hilton Hemerding’s – Beautiful Guyana, and Song of the Republic, words which remind us to cherish and defend forever the State that give them (us) birth.
Hamilton Green, J.P,

 

 

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