Dear Editor,
Anna Correia’s letter titled ‘Guyanese fought for their Independence’ (SN, Oct 5) refers.
I thank Ms Correia for the opportunity to exchange and debate ideas.
(1) Did I justify US intervention to keep a communist leader out of power? I did no such thing. I hold no such views. I said let’s accept it as realpolitik. That was the way of the two-superpower world in which we lived and survived (1948-1989). Pointing out that there was no communist leader in Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, and therefore no intervention, was not meant as justification; only an explanation of why it happened in Guyana.
(2) Ms Correia asked me to try imagining what Guyana would have been like under Jagan had the US not intervened. There would have been more turmoil and unrest. Jagan had no multi-racial support and therefore he would not have survived. He would have been overthrown in short order. Second, in every country where the government has monopolized the ownership and control of resources (Jagan’s stated ideology), the result was the impoverishment of their societies. (Guyana suffers from a racial disease. In 1964 everyone voted race. Such a system could not endure – even under a dictatorship.)
(3) Whether I call the fallout from the US intervention “legacies”, and Ms Correia calls it a “curse” makes no difference. This is getting into semantics.
(4) After 50 years of Independence and the mess Guyana is in, I challenge the whole concept of Independence. It is clear that Ms Correia places a premium on Independence. I look for real freedom, economic development, racial equality.
(5) Every day I see a long line outside the passport office (200 new passports are issued each day); people in Guyana live with terror in their hearts not knowing when their houses/businesses will be broken into by gunmen; people die on the roadways every day. People struggle to make ends meet in circumstances where the purchasing power of wages does not match cost of living. For these folks Independence is meaningless.
(6) If my freedom to think and advocate new ideas for national development is considered an insult to Guyanese, then I shall take the risk of being deemed a pariah for advocating unpopular ideas.
Yours faithfully,
Mike Persaud
