ON NOT BEING INVITED TO MANDELA’S FUNERAL SERVICE

Dec 13, 2013 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Why should the President of the Republic of Guyana have taken the Leader of the Opposition to the funeral of the late Nelson Mandela? Is it simply because the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago decided to have her opposite number tag along with her?
Obviously the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago had her own reasons for inviting her country’s Leader of the Opposition to go with her. Many have seen it as a magnanimous gesture, because opposition personalities normally do not go along with government members on official visits.
The Trinidad government had to charter a special flight to go to South Africa. This charter was necessary so that they could meet on time and the Trinidad leader said that in making that decision she consulted with the Leader of the Opposition who had no objection to the arrangements. It would have been hard to see how he would have objected to a charter on which he was a passenger.
Since the Trinidad government had to charter a plane and obviously since there would have been many empty seats available, the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago in her capacity as Head of Caricom graciously invited other Heads of State of the Caribbean Community to be part of the charter.
In the case of Guyana, our own President had left soon after the news broke of Mandela’s death since he took the longer route to South Africa. Perhaps if Guyana could have afforded a special charter, not only Mr. Granger, but other opposition leaders would have been invited to make the journey. Not that this would have given them a ticket into the service or to the viewing of the body of Mandela.
Over ninety Heads of State went to South Africa for the funeral. This when added to the long list of former Heads of State and other dignitaries amounted to quite a number of invitees. If each one of those Heads of State who went to the funeral service had invited their own opposition leaders, it would have created a logistical nightmare for the organizers.
The fact that the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago decided to invite the Leader of the Opposition to be part of her delegation does not therefore mean that Guyana could or should have followed suit. It must be noted that the Leader of the Opposition in Trinidad was not part of the official service that was held for Mandela, since obviously there was a limit to the amount of persons that could be accommodated in the VIP section.
Heads of State were invited by the South African delegation for the funeral service. Opposition leaders were not. As such, even though the Leader of the Opposition was invited by his Prime Minister to go with him, it was hardly likely that he would have been part of the official dignitaries.
In fact, the Trinidad delegation was only allowed two persons at the subsequent public viewing of the body of Mandela. It was for this viewing that the Trinidad Prime Minister took the decision to have the Opposition Leader accompany her.
If our President, who went alone to the funeral, had his own charter jet, I am sure he would have invited others to go with him. Former President of the United States George W. Bush, who was an invited dignitary, hitched a ride to the funeral on Air Force One. There was, of course, nothing preventing our Leader of the Opposition, if he was an invitee, from making his own way to South Africa.
It is hard to think of any opposition leader who accompanied their president as part of an official delegation to State funerals of other heads of State. No one raised a storm over the exclusion of any opposition members on Guyana’s delegation to the funeral of Hugo Chávez.
So what makes Mandela so different that his funeral should have seen a break with protocol by having the Leader of the Opposition of Guyana accompany President Ramotar? The answer to that may be the reason why some persons are upset that the Opposition Leader was not part of Guyana’s delegation to the funeral of Mandela.

2 thoughts on “ON NOT BEING INVITED TO MANDELA’S FUNERAL SERVICE”

apretoute December 13, 2013 at 5:01 am

The Prime Minister of the Bahamas was invited to travel on the Trinidadian aircraft. Think about that!
Cockspur December 13, 2013 at 10:40 am

This was not an official visit dumbo it was a memorial service.

Not only Trinidad’s PM invited the opposition leader, Barbados did so, Jamaica did so and many other countries it is called etiquette and good manners.

President Obama included both President Bush and Mrs. Bush and Mrs. Clinton as well.

The problem in this country is that we have lost all bloody decorum thanks to an uneducated bunch of goons running the country.