Hamilton Green’s comments inaccurate

Jun 10, 2023 Letters

Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – My attention was drawn to a letter from Mr. Hamilton Green which takes issue with my rebuttal of certain assertions made by Mr. Darren Wade and Mr. Nigel Hughes to the Second Session of the United Nation’s Permanent Forum of People of African Descent held during the period May 31-June 2, 2023.

In my original letter, I outlined six specific assertions made by Messrs. Wade and Hughes which, I maintain were manifestly false. In taking issue with my response, Mr. Green has not addressed a single one of those specific matters. Instead, he has “invited” me to join him on an excursion into a number of other enquiries, which, with all respect due to Mr. Green, I decline to do.

The fact is that many of the issues Mr. Green raised, have been the subject of fruitless, perhaps even futile discussions focused on apportioning blame in some cases for almost seventy years. In addressing the inaccurate comments made last week, I find little utility in referring to contested versions of events which occurred as far back as 1957.

Mr. Green ascribes to me, ignorance of certain issues which obviously loom large in his conception of our national journey. While I am well aware of the conventional wisdom that those who knoweth not their history are doomed to repeat it, there is an equally compelling wisdom which holds that history is capable of entrapping and imprisoning us in the past. In the final analysis however, I can assure Mr. Green that there is one thing of which I am certainly not “blissfully unaware”and that is of his own,not insignificant,contribution to difficulties we continue to face as a nation.

It should go without saying that the government of the PNC between the years 1964 to 1992 did nothing to address specific issues confronting people of African descent.

As for the APNU/AFC government of 2015-2020, notwithstanding Mr. Hughes’ submission to the Permanent Forum that the aborted Land COI was the “only” progress made by the State in addressing African issues, their best attempt may well have been the passage of Act No. 13 of 2017 – The Prime Minister Hamilton Green Pension Act 2017.

Hon. Oneidge Walrond