Dear Editor,
I have read Vishnu Bisram’s letter in Thursday’s edition of your newspaper regarding my response (SN, Sept 2) to his initial letter (SN, Aug 31) on the upcoming US election. While it is not my intention to use the valuable letter columns of your newspaper to prolong the discussion about the upcoming American presidential election, there is one issue in his letter to which I am ineluctably constrained to respond. In fact, this issue has nothing to do with the US election but was injected into Mr Bisram’s letter about the election.
The issue to which I refer is Mr Bisram’s reference to the Government of Guyana in which Rashleigh Jackson served an “an illegal government.” When are we going stop this nonsense of denigrating our dear land of Guyana by continuing to make pronouncements that are simply not true? No Government of Guyana, not even one led by a President who ‘threw away‘ a court-issued document in public while being sworn in, was ever illegal.
Mr Bisram would like to have readers, particularly the younger generation, believe that Guyana once had a government that was not constitutionally in place and not internationally recognized. Nothing is further from the truth. No Government of Guyana was ever barred from or thrown out of any international or regional organization, except for the delay in Guyana’s, like Belize’s, admission to the Organization of American States because of territorial issues with their neighbours, Venezuela and Guatemala respectively. In fact, it is as a result of Guyana’s image in the international community at that time that the OAS took the necessary steps to ensure Guyana’s admission into the hemispheric body.
There is no doubt that there were credible complaints about election irregularities back then. These complaints were often brought to the attention of international organizations but at no time was it the view of the international community that there was the necessary and sufficient evidence to prove that the alleged irregularities would have materially changed the results of the elections thereby rendering the government illegal. So Mr Bisram’s pronouncement is simply not true.
Mr Bisram’s pronouncement about an illegal government is an insult to the thousands of people who served in government at various levels back then and who did so much for the country during that era. It is an insult to the brave men and women who served in our military, many of whom put their lives on the line to thwart the threat of rude invasion from two of our neighbours, the engineers and labourers who toiled to strengthen our sea defences to keep the Atlantic Ocean out, our law enforcement personnel who worked tirelessly to keep crime down and ensure public safety and our teachers, among others, who helped to mould so many of our young people of that era that have gone on to do well personally and professionally. These people did not serve an illegal government. His pronouncement is simply not true.
During that era several roads, bridges, multilateral schools, housing schemes and agricultural projects such as the Mahaica/Mahaicony/ Abary (MMA) scheme were built, thousands of scholarships given to deserving Guyanese to pursue higher education overseas and free education introduced from nursery to university, all of this with some level of assistance from international lending institutions and friendly governments who never had reason to question, at least publicly, the efficient and honest spending of their donor assistance. Such assistance would never have been given to an illegal government. Yet more evidence that Mr Bisram’s pronouncement is simply not true.
Guyana enjoyed very good relations with most countries globally, was very well respected and its views and leadership on issues often sought at the United Nations and within the Non-Aligned Movement. The country was host to several world leaders including Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau of Canada, Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Sri Lanka, Fidel Castro and Andrew Young, the US ambassador to the UN, in addition to hosting a meeting of the Foreign Ministers of Non-Aligned countries and the first ever Caribbean Festival of Creative Arts (Carifesta). The Caribbean Community (Caricom) was, and still is, headquartered in Guyana. Further, Forbes Burnham was chosen to be a participant in the Cancun Summit of key world leaders alongside the likes of US President Ronald Reagan and he enjoyed good personal relations with many of these world leaders including India’s Indira Gandhi and Britain’s Margaret Thatcher.
President Desmond Hoyte was twice received at the White House – once each by Presidents Reagan and Bush. Guyana’s Foreign Minister Shridath Ramphal was elected Commonwealth Secretary General and Attorney General Dr Mohammed Shahabuddeen and Finance Minister Carl Greenidge to positions at the World Court and the ACP respectively. These would hardly have happened had the Government of Guyana been an illegal one. So Mr Bisram‘s pronouncement is simply not true.
And no country, as far as I know, ever revoked the personal or diplomatic visa of any government minister or official during that era. So Mr Bisram‘s pronouncement is simply not true.
Finally I have read allegations about Mr Bisram’s polls being fake. I do not know. Are these allegations simply not true?
Editor, this is a long letter but I hope you find the space to publish it so that our younger generation would know that despite many negative happenings in Guyana since independence, the one thing they must never be misled into believing is that our beautiful country was once administered, or for that matter is being administered by an illegal government. Any such claim is simply not true.
Yours faithfully,
Wesley Kirton
