Ambassador Sarah –Ann Lynch: I repeat my call

Oct 22, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – I learned a long, long time ago that Guyana has special moral defects and if you do not internalise the lessons of the backlash in fighting for rights and justice, you will end up a sad mental case. In this country year after year, I learned that they are five lessons you must keep in your mind.
1 -Do not bother with your detractors if you do not take your plate to them. 2- No one is going to beat your drum for you if you decide not to beat it. 3- No matter how civilised you come across those that don’t welcome you will not offer an ounce of praise. 4 – Do what you have to do, what you feel you must morally do in your honest interest, and do it without any looking back because others will do what they want to do without considering how you feel.
5- You are going to meet people who warn you about things and places to suit their own purpose but are far morally inferior to you. If I write my memoir, I will get hundreds of libel writs. My life of over 50 years of social activism and 33 years of newspaper and television commentary has been about keeping those five lessons close to my mind. I will now speak my mind on how I feel without any fear of what anyone else thinks. I believe in what I will now express.
I believe that given the super-power status of the US and the immense clout it can exert among poor nations that the US saved electoral democracy and prevented dictatorship in Guyana after the attempt to rig the March 2020 election began.
The point person for the US government in Guyana was its ambassador, Mrs. Sarah-Ann Lynch. The way diplomacy works, the US government had to shape its attitude on the election based on Mrs. Lynch’s transmissions. It meant that if Mrs. Lynch’s correspondence was in support of the aims of the APNU+AFC and she had painted a portrait of wrong-doing by the PPP, the State Department would have been guided by her analyses because she is the person on the ground.
Mrs. Lynch observed the election process from voting day and remained a meticulous observer for the entire period until Dr. Irfaan Ali was sworn in as president. It was through her transmissions, the powerful global actor with immense influence throughout the world – the United States – told the ruling regime that the US will not accept any other results than that which was declared by the CARICOM recount team. The alternative would have been devastating sanctions against Guyana given the kind of power the US has in the world.
The different attitudes of Guyanese toward Mrs. Sarah-Ann Lynch are simple to understand. If you wanted to have a government that administered Guyana for ideological, racial or other reasons through electoral fraud so that government could have permanent power, then you will not assign any heroic or admirable sentiments to Mrs. Lynch.
If you believe that the Ambassador stood tall in stopping rigged election, denial of people’s right to have their votes counted, and saving Guyana from a fate that was shaped by the Burnham dictatorship 50 years ago, then this lady should receive your praise. I want to offer just three examples from the syndrome of permanent power in Guyana to contexualise how important it is to honour Sarah-Ann Lynch.
1- If we had free and fair election, Mr. Burnham may have been voted out for denying Walter Rodney employment at UG. 2- If we had free and fair election, Mr. Burnham could not have declared the doctrine of paramountcy of the party whereby his party, the PNC, had constitutional jurisdiction over all state institutions. 3- How permanent power can destroy an economy creating hardship for the entire nation.
When my wife and I decided to extend our small house in Wortmanville because we now had a child, it was virtually impossible to get any useful hardware items and household items. Tiles for the bathroom were extremely difficult to find. We could not get a modest chandelier anywhere.
I will always remember we found a small chandelier at National Hardware that today, no working class person building a house would think of buying. We kept it when we moved into Turkeyen. It is a symbol in our living room of the destructive nature of permanent power. I repeat once more – this country should honour Sarah-Ann Lynch and the others I mentioned in many columns last year by the erection of a bust or street named after her.
(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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Ambassador Sarah –Ann Lynch: I repeat my call

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