Mr. Carlos De Barros’ reply to Dr. Janette Bulkan

Dec 12, 2022 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News – People have a right to express their opinions. Viewpoints can be ignorant and stupid but freedom is completely lost when you deny humans the right to express their thoughts on anything.

I accept homosexuality as a practice that society should not frown on. The gays have their parades in the streets. Certain churches are opposed to homosexuality and they must have the right to picket and demonstrate in the streets too.

Here is something that I have never printed on this page before. Well known politician, formerly of the PPP and the AFC, Rajendra Bissesar, who is also a frequent letter-writer in the press, told me that the Stabroek News refused to carry his analysis on the genesis of Russian feelings on its security in Europe.

He showed me his exchange with its editor-in-chief, Mr. Anand Persaud. I do not support the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I will sign a petition condemning the invasion. But a society must not stifle debate and there has been an interesting global debate about NATO’s policies toward Russia after the Cold War since the invasion of Ukraine took place.

Mr. Bissesar’s letter described and explained the geopolitical antecedents that led to the war in the Ukraine. I contacted the then editor of Kaieteur News, Sharmaine Grainger, and asked her to let Mr. Bissesar’s analysis be part of intellectual debate so readers can learn about the past. I could not have denied Mr. Bissesar’s publication because I do not support the Russian invasion.

We come now to the caption of this column with Dr. Janet Bulkan’s name. Dr. Bulkan is trained in forestry but not petroleum engineering. She appeared virtually in front of the OAS’s body on human rights and asked for the OAS to intervene to stop further oil drilling in Guyana.

Dr. Bulkan’s action I found offensive but no one should have stopped her. What we could have done was to assert our right to respond to her. The first person to do so was Jonathan Yearwood, formerly of ANUG and now a leading voice in the civil society grouping named, Article 13.

Mr. Yearwood’s response was very good. Dr. Bulkan was it again when she was part of a group that recently (November 13) published a letter in the Stabroek News again calling for cessation oil operations here. Please see my column,” A conversation on two subjects: Slavery and the diaspora,” of November 22.

In that column, I described the long exodus from Guyana of many of those signatories, all of whom are never ever going to come back and serve Guyana. They will never live out their lives here. They are part of another country.

In yesterday’s issue of this newspaper, Mr. Carlos De Barros a gentleman of Amerindian extraction took issue with Dr. Bulkan’s intervention into the affairs of the National Toshao Council. His letter was pointed and penetrating and needs to be read. This is the value of intellectual debate that we need in Guyana. Let Dr. Bulkan publish her letters but we must reply to her. Mr. De Barros did and we learned. I know, I learned.

Mr. De Barros informed us that Dr. Bulkan sat on the board of directors of the Guyana Forestry Commission while living in Canada. I quote from Mr. De Barros: “She (Dr. Bulkan) even failed as part of GFC Board of Directors where she attended all meetings virtually from her comfort living abroad.”

I don’t know if Mr. De Barros’s statement is true so I am not going to endorse it but what worries me is why any government would want to make a person a board director who does not live in the country.

That does not make sense to me unless that person is indispensible. A more useful format is for the board to have the foreign-based Guyanese act as a consultant to the board. Can the board not locate its membership right here in Guyana?

Mr. De Barros accused Dr. Bulkan of being present at all board meetings but only virtually. I find that hard to believe. There must have been some meetings where Dr. Bulkan travelled from Canada to Guyana. Of course, the board would have financed her journey.

I cannot accept that Dr. Bulkan attended all the statutory confabulations of the Guyana Forestry Commission’s board through the Zoom system. That certainly is hard to believe. I think Mr. De Barros needs to clarify his statement. And certainly Dr. Bulkan has a moral obligation to explain to the Guyanese people if Mr. De Barros is wrong. I hope she does. (The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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