Latest update November 1st, 2026 10:45 AM
Excellency Ramotar: Return of slavery
(Kaieteur News) – I shared space with former President Donald Ramotar twice, when he was the main man. Wasn’t a heavy-duty admirer. But this I confess: he has now shown Guyanese that he is a real man.
A man of struggle. A man of history. A man of the people and for the people. Thanks, Excellency.
Why are regional leaders so silent, so complacent, so deficient in the face of this area’s recolonization? Mr. Ramotar said some of that; the rest is mine. Guyana is not Norway. Guyana emerged from the swamps and horrors of slavery and indentureship. There’s that legacy that soon gave way to another set of users and abusers: colonialists and imperialists. This is Excellency Ramotar old language and what he has felt compelled to dust off and display across the world. In effect, the end of slavery and indentureship put an end to the era of the plantation masters and replaced them with royal and colonial masters.
Fast forward to 1966. Guyanese allowed themselves to be sucked into a cocoon of complacency. Independence meant an end to foreign masters and foreign domination. Like hell it did. Burnham found that out. Jagan lived with it longer. And when the oil gushed from below the sea, all the planners, hustlers, and operators sprang into action. A plane ticket to GT. Mike Pompeo. Sarah Ann Lynch. Tony Blair. And just the other day, Charles III. The first one lost his head. This one came here and filled Dr. Ali’s head about how great he (Ali) is. It’s what Donald Ramotar calls the recolonization of this space.
When England sent its rogues and ruffians to Africa, they went with bolts of cloth, bottles of rum, and beads. They filled their boats with labour riches and left. Charles III sweeps through the region, reaches Guyana and gives the Indian and Black man a fat head. See! The white people like the PPP. True, and in ways that Guyanese can’t even begin to fathom. He gave Drs. Ali and Jagdeo a gift for Xmas: some bells to ring in the Guyana-Great Britain special partnership. This is the magic of oil. The funny stuff that it compels.
Charles could leave the first frosts of winter and brave the scorchers of Guyana. For oil. He could absorb (and shrug off) the many bombardments about apologies and reparations. It’s all for a piece of Guyana’s oil. It’s also Donald Ramotar at his vintage best. Old rat, new rat, he still smells them from a continent away. Recolonization going from strength to strength, with some doses of steroids on the side. Attach that to the royal visitor. For those in search of proof, here it comes.
The UN, the U.S., and Cuba. Where was Guyana? Taking a bathroom break, or diving under the table. This is what Independence has boiled down to, this is what Ali celebrates as a special relationship. If that is the special kind, I don’t want to see the regular variety. Apparently, Excellency Ramotar already sees the outline of the landscape, and the realities behind them. He can speak from experience, having been forced into the trenches. If there is one Guyanese who can speak of recolonization, and spot a re-colonizer in a typhoon, it is Donald Ramotar. Been there, seen them, dealt with them, know them.
This oil wealth should have given Guyana some power, its government some muscle. It did. Except that the PPP Govt uses that power and muscle to trample upon Guyanese. Unfortunately, when Ali and Jagdeo encounter a new colonizer, their first question is: how much? Rather than using oil as a strength, a bargaining chip, they use it as a cushion or a footstool. Meaning, they sit on it and suffocate it; or stand on it and bury it.
Last, recolonization takes a new form. Instead of whips and chains and men on horseback, there are briefcases and contracts, and usurpers with bracelets and a rope in their hands. The former is to tie-up the hands of Guyanese leaders. The latter is to hang them. Ramotar proved his point when Guyana waffled before the world on Cuba, and dangled on a string at the UN.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)
Share this:
Discover more from Kaieteur News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Similar Articles
Website Hits
Blunt of the day
Sports
Features/Columnists
Sir. Ronald Sanders
The GHK Lall Column
Weekend Cartoon
