Dear Editor,
This month as the People’s Republic of China in Guyana and indeed elsewhere celebrate their 65th anniversary of its founding, we need offer the leadership and people of China our heartfelt congratulations and good luck. For me I offer fond wishes to this nation of 1.4 thousand million people.
It is in order for all of us to admire the government and the people of China for the massive strides they have made in a relatively short time which began four years after the end of the horrible Second World War and their problems with Japan.
With Dr Ptolemy Reid I am proud to have been one of the very few in the People’s National Congress Government, who supported President Forbes Burnham when the establishment of diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China was debated. Our stand has been vindicated. At that time, the world was in the midst of the stressful Cold War, many of our political leaders in Guyana, Latin America and the Caribbean were either sceptical, reluctant or afraid to openly embrace the People’s Republic of China.
In Guyana the People Progressive Party (PPP) did not wish to offend their Soviet backers while others sought not to upset the West.
Burnham, true to his policy of non-alignment, independence and our national interest, did not hesitate to embrace China. We were therefore, the first in the region to take this bold step of diplomatic relations with the Peoples Republic of China.
The relations with China have been and continue to be of great benefit to the citizens of Guyana.
Having said that, we need to accept that in every family or human grouping, you have the good, those not so good and the bad ones. In Guyana, the situation with Chinese businesses is no different. We have those that we should welcome with open arms who contribute to the goodness of our country, stimulating and deepening cultural and other ties. When visitors come we feel a sense of pride to take them to the New Thriving Restaurant or to shop at China Trading in Georgetown. Their acrobats are delightful their doctors helpful, and the Chinese table tennis coach was fantastic. I recall the Bel Lu Brick Factory and the Sanata Textile Mill among others.
However, as a patriot we frown on companies whose only concerns seem to be the rape of our rich forest resources by harvesting our trees and failing to do what this country and others agreed to as part of our decolonization process. Beyond this we can recall that India Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, Burma’s President Minister U Nu, Indonesia’s President Sukarno, Egypt’s President Gamal Abdel Nasser and Yugoslavia’s President Josip Bro Tito and Kwame Nkrumah the President of Ghana came together to formulate certain policies supported by Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham. One was that foreign companies should not simply extract our raw materials but establish secondary industries so that we develop skills locally and benefit from value added businesses.
What we are seeing in the forest sector is a return of colonial exploitation. This wanton cutting of our trees and export of logs is an assault upon our people, an insult to our slave and indentured ancestors and indigenous people, a total let-down to those who struggled for independence and a great injustice to our future generations.
Forbes Burnham and Cheddi Jagan must be turning in their graves in shame to see what is taking place in Guyana. We will soon be left with snakes, reptiles and swamps of what was earlier forest; the air polluted, while a few make millions that are spent outside of Guyana.
Guyanese, together we must safeguard our patrimony with courage. As a small boy, I heard the old folks say silence gives consent. Are we as Guyanese giving consent to an inappropriate exploitation of our natural resources? Irrespective of political attachment that is wrong.
We must make this administrators listen to our voices.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green
Mayor
