Make a bust of the following persons

Jun 17, 2020 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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If any young Guyanese, 40 years from now is asked what the significance of June 16, 2020 is, he/she may not know. But if that day is a holiday or if there is a statute on some popular spot in Guyana that symbolizes its importance then it becomes self-explanatory.
I am recommending one of two things to President Irfaan Ali as a matter of extreme urgency. Create a national holiday for June 16 or the day when the declaration is official or erect a bust of the face of the following persons; Bruce Golding; Owen Arthur; American Ambassador, Sarah-Ann Lynch; Canadian High Commission, Lilian Chatterjee; British High Commissioner, Grey Quinn and EU Ambassador, Fernando Ponz Cantó.
These people kept alive Guyanese freedom to vote and have that vote counted. We should forever be grateful to them. When you contextualize their presence in Guyana and relate it to 1968, then you will come to understand that the names mentioned above have left an indelible legacy in this sad country.
Here now is the contextual argument. In 1968, Forbes Burnham and his PNC party thought that the only way the party can survive in power was to rig the election because a split vote may see the United Force and the PPP in a coalition thus ending the PNC’s reign.
From 1968, the PNC rigged successive elections including the one under Desmond Hoyte in 1985. There was also a fraudulent referendum in 1968. From the first electoral massacre in 1968, the country saw a continuous exodus so by the time the Americans negotiated with Cheddi Jagan to have free and fair elections in 1992, Guyana was virtually a ruined land with most of its talented and wealthy people gone. But the relentless exodus included countless ordinary souls who secured illegal landing in several CARICOM states and western countries.
From 1968 to Desmond Hoyte’s innovative directions in political economy in 1987, Guyanese living here were an unhappy people, pessimistic and joyless. Most, if not all, wanted to get out. It was a miserable society without hope and hopelessly going nowhere. In this quagmire of depressive nihilism, I chose to return but also dragged my soulful, beautiful, educated wife with me. I knew what a wasteland Guyana was until 1992 when people could have voted freely and see their votes counted.
From 1992, elections were held, incumbents came and went. Then, came March 2, 2020. This was the atavistic reversion to 1968, 1973, 1978, 1980, 1985. I lived through all those rigged elections but I never saw such naked electoral terrorism as I saw from March 2 to June 15 in the year 2020. No one under 40 years of age can imagine the shape of the collective psyche of a society where a permanent dictatorship had its knee on the body of its citizens.
This happened again in March 2020. We were back to permanent PNC dictatorship. The reincarnation of Forbes Burnham came down from the horizon to Guyana. But the era of rigged elections had passed. The world was not prepared to torture Guyana again. The world knew that Guyana did not deserve another round of PNC dictatorship, another round of Burnhamism, another round of dissolution of the right to vote.
This is where we must see the price value of Golding, Arthur, Ambassador Lynch; High Commissioner Chatterjee; High Commissioner Quinn and Ambassador Cantó. These people saved Guyana. These influential international actors saw the naked electoral terrorism perpetrated by the PNC, AFC and their GECOM surrogates and they told Guyana and the world, they will stop electoral terrorism in Guyana because they will confront it.
Confront it they did. Guyana won yesterday. Freedom was won yesterday. But it was only possible because of Golding, Arthur, Ambassador Lynch, High Commissioner Chatterjee; High Commissioner Quinn and Ambassador Cantó. I implore President Ali, please borrow some funds from some part of the world and make a bronze bust of Golding, Arthur, Ambassador Lynch, High Commissioner Chatterjee, High Commissioner Quinn and Ambassador Cantó.
Forty years from now the young generation will look at these faces and they will read the inscription below. They will see that if it weren’t for these great humans, these passionate humans, these outstanding democratic characters, Guyana would have been dead as it was under Forbes Burnham.
I want the PPP leaders to know that I will use my pen consistently to call for these busts to be made. I would suggest placement at either the arrival section of the airport or at the round-about at the Kitty sea-wall or by the Cenotaph. Do it, President Ali, just do it!

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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