Dear Editor,

The Barticians have collectively voiced their dissatisfaction at the government’s mining policy. An entire sub-region was shut down due to the people recognizing their democratic right and pooling their resources. An overnight solution will not come for the Barticians, but they surely have had the attention of the entire country, the government included. If we had more Barticas in Guyana, this country might have been a better place. But Guyanese do not like to speak out openly. Quarrelling among friends in enclosed spaces they are good at, but when the time comes to speak out and take whatever heat comes after, there comes fear and trepidation.

But with reference to President Bharrat Jagdeo, I cannot add anything new to an excellent piece in the last Sunday Stabroek by the editor on the trips of our President and our strange foreign policy. Furthermore, I am happy that the political parties are being more vocal nowadays about the President’s continental travels and their ‘hidden’ costs and ultimate burden on us, the taxpayers. But I believe it is now safe to say that no amount of editorials about this matter, letters in these columns and press conferences and statements by the opposition parties would be enough to stop the frequent overseas trips, even as we Guyanese are informed about them way after the President leaves the country, and speculation and contradiction flood the media as to who is attending with him; the true purpose of the trip; the benefits garnered from such trips and their cost, which have been shrouded in secrecy. It is only now that a political party has made a figure public (I had expected a much higher figure, but does the one quoted include the cost of the entourage?) in relation to the President’s trips. But can’t these parties demand the results of the Auditor General’s report with regards to the trips? Has the administration got anything to hide? It preaches transparency so much then why is the government so reluctant to address the ‘nitty- gritty’ elements of the presidential trips?

Doesn’t President Jadgeo like being in Guyana and governing the country he was elected to run? Instead, it would appear that he loves spending more time out rather than in. The electorate is hurting. Presidents, in their final terms in office, have been known to act with little care and concern as to what the people have to say about their policies. Is that the case with the President?

The President is missing out on the issues of the people in this country. It’s like the father of a home who sort of abandons his family to spend time elsewhere. As soon as one thinks he would return, he runs off somewhere else. Is this the same man we voted for four years ago? Is this the same leader of the touted ‘democratically and people-driven’ political party which Guyanese have voted time and again into office? I think not. I believe the President has become someone Guyanese do not know any more. The recent actions get this country a little too close for comfort to a nation which has strained diplomatic relations with most of the free world; which has an ‘underground’ uranium enrichment scheme which it very well intends to use to advance covert agendas; which has openly criticized and refused to amend ties with the American government and people – good friends of Guyana; and which forms part of the ‘axis of evil’ trio.

This government has been defending its stance in terms of its relations with that country through numerous letters in the press. But I still cannot get it. I still cannot believe that we as a nation have stooped so low as to embrace and ‘show off’ our current foreign relations to the rest of the world. We are Guyana; a poor nation, just a little better off than our sister Caricom nation, Haiti, so why are we being so pig-headed as to accept “promises of help” and become part and parcel of the plans of nations like Iran?

This is a call for President Jagdeo, wherever he is, to come back home; the Barticians need him; his supporters need him; the country elected him to be President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana and demands that he cut back on his time spent abroad. His absenteeism is getting overbearing.

Yours faithfully,
Leon Jameson Suseran