A most unnecessary rebuff

Mar 19, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
United States Ambassador to Guyana, His Excellency Perry Holloway recently issued a wonderfully balanced recommendatory piece on the urgent need for the establishment of a Sovereign Wealth Fund as Guyana positions itself on the threshold to establishing a petroleum based economy.
Ambassador Holloway observed: “Guyana is poised to be a very rich country for this region with considerable revenue streams in the future.”
It was therefore, a matter of considerable shock and surprise to read the response of Minister Winston Jordan that the Ambassador’s comments “may give the impression that the Government of Guyana and by extension the Ministry of Finance…has not made significant progress on this important piece of legislation.”
Minister Jordan’s reaction led me to conclude, and I am sure that many who read the Ambassador’s comments concluded similarly, that Minister Jordan was impulsive and spoke from the top of his head, he not having read the Ambassador’s comments in detail and seemingly just reacted to the headlines in the newspaper.
Ambassador Holloway, referring to his comments said: “In writing this, I do not imply that work is not being done to develop a Sovereign Wealth Fund. In fact I strongly commend the Government of Guyana for working on a draft bill and preparing to have a fund in place by 2020.”
Notwithstanding his deliberate effort to be his diplomatic best and not appear to be critical of the Government, Winston Jordan, roundly rebuffed the Ambassador.
Just so Ambassador Holloway understands, Guyanese understand Minister Jordan to have told you, “Don’t poke your nose in our affairs. The oil money is ours. Mind your own business.”!!
No one could have failed to notice that in his comments Ambassador Holloway emphasized the need for Government’s “consultations” and “conversations” with the people of Guyana in the development of a “framework that protects and effectively leverages wealth to transform the nation.”
Ambassador Holloway is temporarily resident in Guyana. He is no doubt aware that wherever Government is with the development of a Sovereign Wealth Fund legal framework, it has not involved the people of Guyana in “consultations” and “conversations” in this regard.
It is this underlying theme of people involvement in the Ambassador’s comments, that I suspect has irked the rulers, much more than just his call for a Sovereign Wealth Fund.
The truth is Ambassador Holloway does not know the nature of the APNU/PNC beast. He has been told to exercise restraint in relation to Guyana’s business. In other words Minister Jordan has told Ambassador Holloway that he and Guyana can do without his advice.
The only thing that this undemocratic regime needs from the US Government is for visas to be given freely to PPP/C supporters to facilitate their travel out of Guyana in the run up to the 2020 elections, so that the support base of that party can be significantly reduced.
Additionally, this inept, blundering regime as Kaieteur News columnist Freddie Kissoon says, would be happy if the USA were to keep the PPP/C out of Government and to turn a blind eye to their known potential for elections rigging.
The PNC, the prime mover in APNU is well aware that the USA looked the other way as they, in the past, for about nearly three decades, brutalized the people of Guyana and trampled upon their dignity and mercilessly violated their basic human rights and freedoms.
The time is now, for Ambassador Holloway to reassure the people of Guyana that come 2020, the only interest of the USA will be in a rig free elections, free from fair and patently fair.
Sincerely,
Selwyn Persaud

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