Controversy in Guyana and the United States

Jan 27, 2021 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

As I sit in my favourite chair reflecting on my rather long life, I wonder why people are so power hungry and what an unfair world we live in. I will make a few references to support my contention. I will first touch on the recent happenings in Guyana, the land of my birth. There is no doubt that race plays a very important role in the country’s political advancement which is very unfortunate and frankly speaking I do not see a change in the next couple of decades. What is disturbing is that the governing party does whatever it feels to do without fear of criticism. Now that the PPP/C is in office, it takes steps to prosecute persons from the opposing APNU+AFC coalition. I am not at all contending that their actions are blatant and without merit, but as pointed out by a few government officials, the APNU+AFC had a field day when in office and did several blatant and wrongful acts, despite criticisms from the then opposition party the PPP/C.
Now that the PPP/C is back in power, their top brass members are doing exactly what they had criticized when they were in the opposition… some members are bold to say “it is payback time” but this is totally unfortunate…there are too many square begs in round holes – two wrongs cannot make a right. The big question is how can this ongoing wrong doing be corrected? I have no doubt that most Guyanese and Caribbean people would like to see a rectification to this troubling situation. It will definitely need the assistance of international agencies such as the United Nations. There is very little faith in the Commonwealth Secretariat, since the current Secretary General, Dominica born Patricia Scotland, has not lived up to the high reputation of her office, and the Caricom Secretariat is not too effective. There is need for a high powered group to be established to assist, but the big question who will organize such a move and who will fund it. The other issue will be the legal basis of such a body and if its recommendations will be implemented. We had in the past had numerous Commissions of Inquiry to look into endless issues and their findings were thrown into waste paper baskets and trashed. Guyana and the wider Caribbean have produced several outstanding scholars; maybe they should come up with some ideas. Many of them are getting older and soon might be obsolete. It is a huge task – constitutional, judicial, racial, gender and several other issues are involved.
Over in the United States, it seems as if the powerful 350-million nation is in limbo. The country is totally divided, not only between republicans and democrats, but it seems as if a few radicals want to move towards socialism. Donald Trump, a wealthy right wing businessman, who ruled the country for four years was booted out in a controversial election which Trump claimed was rigged, but 78-year-old Joe Biden, the new President seems to be surrounded by a few socialists including Bernie Sanders, Osacia Cortez, Ilhan Omar, et al. The new Vice President, Kamala Harris, also has leftist tendencies. The controversial issue is the new administration wants to open up the country for migrants. There are more than 12 million just waiting to get into the US – they were prevented by Trump who built a wall to stop the flow. Another 11 million undocumented ones are in the country trying to gain legal status. The coronavirus pandemic has added to the country’s problems. Up to the time of writing, January 26, there were 424,000 deaths in the US and a total of 26 million affected. The pandemic has severely affected the country’s economy and the way of life of Americans. Despite the setback President Biden who served as a senator for decades and vice president to Barack Obama for eight years, is optimistic that he will navigate the country through the difficult period. He is being criticized for taking steps to impeach Trump for the second time. It is unprecedented for a former President to be impeached.

Oscar Ramjeet

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