Pastor Jeffrey is wrong about Bryan Hunt

Jun 24, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,
Pastor Wendell Jeffrey’s letter (KN 22 June 2016) seems to accuse outgoing American envoy Bryan Hunt of undue influence. Mr. Hunt’s perspective on the implications to be drawn from the findings of the Audits was reasonable and sensible. Mr. Editor, it seems ok for Guyana to ask USA taxpayers for ‘development assistance’ but it is not ok for the representative of the USA to comment on wide ranging illegalities that are directly and indirectly connected to it. It seems that the USA should speak out against the PNC, which was accused of dictatorship, but the beneficiary, the PPP, who inherited the government since 1992, can engage in looting of state property, on a scale unknown in recent Caribbean history, and presumably it should be silent.
Sometimes influence saves a country from itself, especially when the population lived under political domination and in fear and may be incapable of preventing the country’s self-destruction. Incidentally, Ambassador Hunt was right about local government elections as well. In taking this position, we make no case for intervention but rather a case against hypocrisy, cynicism and implied convenient invocation of sovereignty.
Mr. Hunt hails from a country where the rule of law has a strong influence on behavior of people while they are in government, and where the public is intolerant to corruption involving taxpayer’s money. Ask all of those Guyanese who now call the USA their home what happens when officials are caught. Most likely, Mr. Hunt was expressing a view based on the implications that follow logically from the principles underpinning the rule of law. Confusing politics and law is always dangerous. Indeed, the Audits prove the folly of conflating politics and law, and partially why Guyana is such a mess. The authorities can choose to delude themselves but they cannot deceive the public.
The envoy has a clear, not a convoluted, sense of justice.
Those who were entrusted with taxpayer’s money have callously gutted that trust. He rightly advocates what all reasonable people would. His point may well be that failure to take action will have grave implications for the future. For example, on what grounds will a future administration prosecute, for corruption, any official from a government which preceded it, or indeed, any official who works for it? What happens when the next lot empties the treasury? What should the PPP do when it returns to power and it unearths corruption, nothing? How does one justify victimization of the citizens of a country in perpetuity, without redress? There has to be a beginning, otherwise action can never be taken, an impossible predicament for any country worthy of that title.
He may be pointing to the very grave implications for governing a country where some people are punished for far smaller transgressions against the state. What would be the justification for punishing such citizens? In an earlier letter we suggested that two beacons of a progressive society are, that it must create opportunities for all and that it must be just. How does a government explain the actions of the state in punishing some of its citizens for similar transgressions (embezzlement, theft, bribery, malfeasance, call them what you will) while, in full view of those same citizens and all Guyanese, it refuses to sanction others. Does this mean that the case against Dr. Jennifer Westford must now be dropped, without further resolution before the Court? How does it govern? What about public perception regarding its responsibility, credibility, authority or indeed, its fecklessness?
Even if, as Pastor Jeffrey assumes, this is somehow about the influence of the USA on governance in Guyana, the issue on which that influence was brought to bear is valid. The facts are clear and the transgressions have been laid bare. This is not a matter of conjecture. This is about justice for an impoverished people who have been mercilessly robbed by a capricious and veracious regime. What is the principle for which Mr. Hunt could be accused of being unfair, unreasonable or wrong?
Ivor Carryl

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News