Dear Editor,
Last Saturday night, as a guest of Capt.Gerry Gouveia, I attended the 50th Independence Anniversary “Golden Jubilee” Dinner in New York City at which H.E. President David Granger was the guest of honour and keynote speaker.
For me, the highlight of the evening was the President’s address which did not include any mention of the former government’s 23 years in office, which did not include any mention of any partisan politics, which did not include any mention of forensic audits but rather highlighted the assets including our flora and fauna, the achievements and the challenges of the nation over the past 50 years; stressed the importance of national unity and identified some diversification and other measures necessary for Guyana’s future development, progress and prosperity.
In introducing the President, the young lady slipped and said “I give you….President of the United States”….then quickly corrected the faux pas. But she might have been on to something for the President’s speech was Obama-like in content…a bit of history, identification of the attributes that make Guyana great, some analysis of the current state of affairs and recommendations about how the country might best develop over the next 50 years, not to mention snippets of humour.
At various events in the past to celebrate our Independence and Republic anniversaries, some of which I was involved in planning in Florida, one of the trends of the speakers from Guyana was to refer to 28 years of dictatorship and to highlight their perceived ills of the Opposition of the day. Not so Saturday night! We saw more than a glimpse of statesmanship. Take a bow HE David Arthur Granger. Thanks Capt.Gerry Gouveia for inviting me to be among your guests.
Yours faithfully,
Wesley Kirton
