Is Guyana about to repeat its tragic past?

Jan 04, 2014 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
It boggles the mind why all those lawyers in the Opposition, including leader of the AFC, Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan and Christopher Ram who, as part of their legal studies would have studied a fair amount of Public International Law, would support the American Ambassador’s public declaration that he will ignore a decision of Guyana’s Cabinet of Ministers.
In that course, they would have learnt about the principles of national sovereignty and non-interference in the internal affairs of a country. They would have learnt that those are two of the most fundamental principles of Public International Law. They would have learnt that no foreign diplomat can challenge the authority of a democratically-elected government.
Why then does the US ambassador, who certainly knows that his public challenge to the authority of the Guyana Government is against all established diplomatic rules and conventions, continue to ignore a decision of a legitimately elected government? And most importantly, why is the Opposition so strong in its support of the US Ambassador in his blatant act of disregard for Guyana’s sovereignty?
Those who are old enough or are knowledgeable enough about Guyana’s political history would not find it difficult to answer the questions posed above. It is simply the beginning of a replay of the US intervention into Guyana’s internal politics in the 1960s. The difference may lie only in the purpose of the intervention.
The Geopolitics of South America has changed. The two largest countries of South America, Venezuela and Brazil, are no longer governed by puppet regimes of the US. Any attempt to install such regimes in these two countries, as was recently demonstrated in Venezuela, will not only be hugely expensive but also doomed to failure. This is where the strategic importance of Guyana to the US comes in. Get it? Guyana is uniquely and strategically placed between these two countries.
How else then can the Americans ensure that they regain a firm foothold on the border of these countries without making Guyana a pawn in their geopolitics? The answer is a simple one. Go back to their old and trusted friends – the PNC now baptized APNU and the cash-strapped AFC who is willing to play the role of the long disintegrated United Force (UF).
Over the past few years the world has witnessed this sort of intervention in quite a few countries in the Arab world, democratizing them. The results of those interventions are seen every day on televisions worldwide. The American Government has converted stable and prosperous societies into war zones and living hell for tens, if not hundreds of millions. All of those countries have been thrown back decades in terms of their development.
The methods used in those countries are similar to those currently being used by the US Ambassador to Guyana, that is, supporting and building the capacity of reactionary opposition forces which cannot gain power through the ballot box. Don’t forget that APNU and the AFC, whose capacities the US Ambassador wants to build, are the ones who for two consecutive years cut from the national budget all major infrastructure and investments projects that were designed to lay the foundations of a bright and prosperous Guyana.
We Guyanese for the most part are intelligent people who want to live in a peaceful, democratic society governed by the rule of law. We must, therefore, guard against a few power-hungry individuals who are willing to sell whatever it takes for the sake of political power.
Such selling out is nothing strange to those individuals. When the PPP was in power in the early ‘60s they betrayed their mother (Guyana) for the sake of political power. We are yet to recover from the effects of that betrayal. The PPP is once again in power and those very individuals are at it again. If we cannot stop a replay of this tragic episode our history Guyana would be destroyed forever.
Do we want Guyana to be the Egypt, Tunisia, Libya or Syria of South America?
The people of Guyana, through a democratic process elected a President to make decisions on their behalf. His name is Mr. Donald Ramotar not Mr. Brent Hardt.
Faruk Mohamed

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