Sanctions are for terminal cases

May 12, 2020 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

It has eased into the Guyanese background currently. But the international community keeps repeating the echoes that started from right here in Guyana, and from the lips of so-called concerned Guyanese patriots. I speak of those calls, no matter how well-positioned then, or how muted now, that were for sanctions. I disagree with those calls.
I disagree strenuously and sharply with any calls for sanctions. This is regardless of the political group, or commercial sector, or civic entity, or professional body from which such calls originate. I abhor them and call them for what they are treasonous. No one can look at themselves in the mirror, or fellow citizens in the face, and say that they are about national self-determination, when they find psychic satisfaction in resorting to reaching for and encouraging the pain of international sanctions upon their own country, on the peoples with whom they share birthright and space. None can make such a call, or be part of such thinking, and from the side of their mouth and with a straight face persuade me (or should be able to do so to anyone else) that they are about love of country, this country or the very people to whom they appeal for votes and say that they are about them.
Those who urge international agencies and influential overseas governments to apply the pressures of sanctions cannot say that they are about healthy and constructive governance of all citizens and then turn around and invite the levying of sanctions; and, similarly, there is none around who should be allowed to get away with pretending at interest in and prioritising the welfare of voters (citizens) and then turn around and betray them by appealing to the international community for sanctions. Because it is those same hapless citizens, those working-class inhabitants of this battered land, who will be pierced some more, and made to feel the worst impacts from any sanctions meted out.
Some reality checks should help. First, those leading the charge for sanctions would be able to access high-priced goods and manage. They will do more than manage; they will prosper. Second, the misery of the poor and deprived bottom feeders would intensify. Third, we will be prime targets for international scavengers to disembowel us (having first de-brained us) and excise our vitals, inclusive of that oil, while we are prostrate. And last, there is no way that calls for and any application of sanctions would not exacerbate already simmering racial hatreds.
In my book, any calls from anyone at any time for sanctions of any kind is guilty of more than betrayal. Such are treasonous. That is the ignominy that should be heaped upon their tarnished heads; it is deserving, even if only in the mere insinuating. The problem is that the fires have been lit and they are not easily extinguishable. Further, knowing how these things (and parties) operate, I believe that insistent stoking is going on behind the scenes with American movers and shakers on their home ground.
Using a nearby context, I point to a recent near-parallel development in Trinidad and Tobago’s, which tells me that I am in illustrious company. Prime Minister Keith Rowley denounced his Opposition counterpart, Mrs. Kamla Prasad-Bissesar, as “a traitor” for calling for sanctions. And that call and their rift cannot be sourced to the overheated cauldron, or life and death struggle, that is of razor-sharp national elections, like here in Guyana.
Instead of degrading to the route of sanctions, I am all for investing the thinking, the energies, and the visions towards local solutions for local problems. I admit that Guyana’s problems are near insoluble and barb-wired; but I also insist that we-leaders, supporters, and larger society-have not tried hard enough, with genuine commitment, and with the required sufficiency of spirit, that gives us a chance to get somewhere. Instead of reasoning, there is cursing and backstabbing and undermining by both sides. It is when the racist fundamentalists from both sides shrink from including Indians and Blacks in their trusted inner councils. Not the public tokens, but on the real inside of the parties’ apparatus to figure out a way to govern cleanly and constructively, on how to give hope to the broad diversity of Guyanese. Instead, party fanatics dictate the racist strategies and programmes that dominate, be they elections cheating or calling for sanctions.
Sanctions are neither about national self-determination nor of national self-governance. Whatever happened to our pride? Our sense of decency? Our prizing of honour? I say let us be man enough to do our own dirty jobs, be patriotic enough to roll up our sleeves and make the sacrifices need to be made to get where we wish to go. Rather than waste energy in inciting outside forces to punish this nation (that what it is, no matter how targeted), let us commit towards a way that rid of racial and pointless elections and seek the different ground that possibly lifts us all up.
Sanctions are for terminal cases. Guyana is not one; not yet. Again, let us look internally for solutions and not recruit outsiders to fight our battles for us.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall

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