Dear Editor,
The Guyana Legion is an organisation established to promote unity among veterans, fostering a spirit of comradeship, and ensuring the social and economic well-being and welfare of its members, especially the aged, disabled and the destitute.
The Legion during the 1950s and 1960s and even the early part of the 1970s catered mainly for the surviving veterans of World Wars 1 and 2 and ex-members of the British Guiana Volunteer Force. As at today’s date, there are no more than a dozen of these veterans alive and they are all in their late eighties and nineties.
Legions around the world have survived because veterans from the post World War 2 era have naturally progressed into these organisations, thus ensuring continuity. This has not been the case in Guyana.
The Guyana Legion has never fully embraced ex-members of the GDF resulting in the formation over the years of: a) The Ex Soldiers Benevolent Organisation; b) The Guyana Veteran’s Foundation; and c) The XGDF Association of Guyana. The organisations at a) and b) are non-functional.
The Guyana Legion has over the past five years fully drifted away from its objectives. It has become a civilian club. In its annual report at the AGM held on 24 February 2013, the membership total was reported as 400 with approximately 80% being civilians, persons who never served in the military or in any other disciplined service.
This may be one of the reasons why the Legion was only able to put ten persons on the last Remembrance Day Parade.
The XGDF Association of Guyana has a membership of over 1600 and all are former members of the GDF. These are ex-soldiers from whom compulsory salary deductions were made for the Guyana Legion from 1966 to 1990 by the GDF.
The Guyana Government has indicated that it prefers to deal with one united veteran’s organisation, and in this regard, the XGDF membership decided to join the Guyana Legion to bring about unity. We attempted to do so in December 2012, but we were advised that applications should be made in January 2013.
On January 7, 2013, the sum of $400,000 for 85 individual applications from members of the XGDF, was submitted to the General Secretary of the Guyana Legion, and he issued a receipt and accepted the applications.
To date only seven applications have been processed and the Legion’s administration cannot give a proper reason for this sloth.
It is clear to see that the Legion’s administration is fearful of the XGDF’s numbers and is also afraid that it could lose control of the Legion.
On February 24, over three hundred members of the XGDF, turned up at the Legion’s AGM and the issue of the non-processing of their applications was raised. XGDF members were incensed that their money was accepted by the Legion and their applications were not processed.They heckled, shouted, and the head table lost control of the meeting. This forced an indefinite adjournment.
There were about 60 Legion members present, comprising many women who were not known to the ex-soldiers present. The Guyana Legion is about and for military veterans, and while there is room for a few associate members, it should never have been allowed to reach this stage where the civilians significantly outnumber the vets. Civilians can join the Lions, Rotary, etc. Those organisations are for them. The Legion is for vets.
This is also a serious indictment of the Legion’s method of attracting vets when one considers there are more than six thousand vets living in Guyana.
The fact that the writer of the letter in Kaieteur News of March 6, 2013, is hiding behind anonymity, clearly indicates his or her attempt to be devious. I was present at the meeting and I never heard any cursing or threats to harm anyone. It also points to the writer’s lack of moral courage. I wish to be placed on record as congratulating the members of the XGDF Association who were present at the AGM and to let them know that their actions halted the perpetrating of further wrong at the Guyana Legion.
Yours faithfully,
George Gomes
Lieutenant Colonel (rtd)
President
XGDF Association of Guyana
