Latest update February 20th, 2025 9:10 AM
President Granger and the Carter Center
DEAR EDITOR,
If President Granger were a true Guyanese patriot (and I know that he is), he had to be very humiliated to sit before representatives of the Carter Center to explain his plans for the forthcoming Regional and General elections to an outside entity like the Carter Center. Guyana after all is a black country and the Carter Center didn’t even have the decency to have an African-American on board. Aside from that, the Carter Center is a very obscure organisation in the United States and to think that our President had to sit before this body to explain his plans for general elections is indeed a hard pill to swallow. The picture was there for everyone to see – the President and Ms. Volda Lawrence sitting on one side, and the Carter Center representatives sitting on the other. Maybe, protocol demanded that it should be done that way and the President couldn’t send a representative.
I know that the Carter Center was involved in our electoral process in the 1992 elections to see the PPP return to power. Twenty-three years of PPP rule didn’t do much good for Guyana, but I guess you can say that because of the Carter Center the elections were fair and democratic. NGO’s like the Carter Center may set out to do some “good” around the world, but very often, they defeat their own purpose by disrespecting citizens and violating their rights as human beings. So, the very injustice they are trying to correct, they perpetrate in their manner and methodology. And don’t forget that what the Carter Center is doing is imperialism, raw and simple. They are like’ wolves in sheep’s clothing’. They would tell you, “Oh, we are not the government, we are just here to help you”, but they disrespect you and violate your sovereignty just like any imperialistic government or multi-national corporation.
Why do we need the Carter Center in Guyana with all the brilliant and qualified Guyanese that we have? We have a very competent judicial system (including the Caribbean Court of Justice) that did a great job so far of managing the electoral shenanigans. And if we want to step outside of Guyana for help, we have Caricom and I didn’t see the president explaining himself to Caricom. What’s wrong with Caricom?
I know some people will want to tell me that the big countries still have a sway in small countries like Guyana and there is nothing we can do about it. I know that the strong take advantage of the weak and that “might is right”. I know those things will not change because of what I am saying in this letter. I guess in a way the president dared not refuse to meet with the Carter Center, because they are from the great United States of America. Maybe, imperialism is inevitable but there is still something that countries like Guyana can do about it. We can refuse to cooperate; we can resist and fight back. It was Martin Carter who said, “pressed to the wall dying but fighting back.” The slaves fought back and won. In the United States, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his followers fought back and won. In Guyana, we can also fight back against sinister foreign forces and win. We don’t need the Carter Center. We are an independent country.
Rudyard Vyfhuis
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