When your own bug bites you

Jul 06, 2014 Features / Columnists, My Column

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As a Guyanese I have been exposed to the kind of reaction that US Ambassador Brent Hardt’s comments evoked from the Guyana Government. And the reaction, according to the government’s Chief Spokesman, Dr Roger Luncheon, was calculated and premeditated.
I was there when he explained why the government reacted as it did, and it was my question about who wrote the speech that Minister Priya Manickchand delivered on the occasion of the 238th anniversary of the independence of the United States.
As Guyanese, we love to knock back and when we don’t, we always wish that someone would do the hitting for us in a hurry. Forget all the talk about leaving everything to God. Had the government adopted that line there would not have been the reaction by the Guyana Government.
The Ambassador has been one of the foreign diplomats to insist that there be local government elections. The last of those elections were held in 1994. Why there have been no more can only be credited to the fact that the government is not too enamoured with holding those elections. They do not give a true reflection of the results should general elections be held.
For example, in 1994 after the People’s National Congress lost the 1992 general elections and after Desmond Hoyte made some significant changes within the ranks of his party, the former Prime Minister Hamilton Green became incensed and formed his own political party.
In the local government elections of 1994, Hammy’s political party beat Desmond Hoyte’s PNC for the Georgetown municipality. Hammy immediately recognized that he could beat Desmond Hoyte in the city and its environs. The general elections of 1997 came and Hammy contested. Hoyte’s PNC demolished him. The people simply told him that they were prepared to support him for the lesser prize but when it came to the big thing he had better think again.
So the ruling party does not set store on local government elections, although it feels a sense of power when it knows that it is in control of the happenings. But this is about the reaction to Ambassador Hardt. I know that the government does not take kindly to criticisms. I have heard the various Ministers describe those newspapers critical of some of the government’s actions as opposition media.
To better understand how each Government Minister feels about the critics, one only has to listen to how Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh describes former Auditor General , Anand Goolsarran. Therefore, who the devil is Ambassador Hardt to criticize the Guyana Government? The government saw the Americans as meddlers in the internal affairs of the country.
But the very People’s Progressive Party Government brought in and invited the meddling. I still remember the year 1990 and even earlier. The PNC was in power and the PPP seemed unable to uproot that party. The party campaigned and lobbied overseas, particularly in the United States. One Paul Richler was invited to canvas numerous Congressmen and even President Jimmy Carter.
I was there when Jimmy Carter came and in not as many words, told Desmond Hoyte that his party was accused of rigging elections and that there were some things he needed to do if he still wanted United States support.
There was the American Ambassador George Fleming Jones who not only openly criticized the PNC government, but had his every comment published with the help of the government. On Friday, Dr Luncheon, when asked about the American involvement in the affairs of Guyana, described it as hereditary. In short, they have always been involved.
But in post-independent Guyana, it is the very party that is now protesting about meddling that invited the meddling.
I recall the British bringing in the mongoose to Guyana to combat the snakes that threatened the agriculture programme. In the end the mongoose became a pest and the British then did their utmost to exterminate them.
Then we come to the manner in which the government decided to react to the charges of meddling. The American ambassador invited the Guyana Government to his home for the celebration. We Guyanese always respect a man’s home. We don’t criticize him there. The government threw that tradition through the window.
Dr Luncheon gloated about the lash that Manickchand gave the Ambassador. Manickchand told Ambassador Hardt that from the time he came to Guyana the relationship between the two countries became tense. How true this is, I don’t know.
I do know that Jimmy Carter was so frustrated with the government that he told a press conference that he would never come back to Guyana. To this day he has kept that promise.
At the same time, President Donald Ramotar has been full of praise for the ambassador. I heard him shower praise on Hardt when the ambassador presented three vessels to the Guyana Coast Guard. The same thing happened when the ambassador announced that he was getting the Drug Enforcement Administration to come to Guyana. This is the same ambassador whose tenure heightened tension between Guyana and the United States.
I am convinced that we broke the diplomatic mould. I am also certain that there would be no fallout, because the Americans are accustomed to dealing with Third World governments. I was embarrassed as many others were, but who cares?
Ambassador Hardt is leaving today and I am certain that his help for Guyana would disappear with his departure. When Ambassador Roland Bullen took Guyana to task and cancelled all visas to Government officials there was not even a peep by way of a criticism from the government. Perhaps we have become adept at picking on those whom we know we can embarrass.

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