Dear Editor,
I am wondering whether Guyana should be selective in its areas of cooperation with Trinidad and Tobago.
Guyana and Trinidad are both member states of CARICOM and I agree we should work together, but it would appear that since our discovery of oil, Trinidad has suddenly realized that Guyana is a friend. Firstly, I witnessed the signing of the MOU between Guyana’s President – David Granger and the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Keith Rowley at State House yesterday, and initially, I tried to ignore all the negatives that were coming from locals in the lead up to the signing of the MOU, however, some of these concerns cannot be ignored.While again, I have watched the Press Conference, I would like to quote from a report carried in the Wednesday Edition of the online version of the TT Daily Express.
“He added (Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley), `We in Trinidad and Tobago are proud to have the record (to) show that as a small developing country, which was not a member of the Paris Club, when Guyana sought debt forgiveness we in Trinidad and Tobago wrote off billions of dollars of Guyana’s debt. We are not holding that as any quid pro quo but it is circumstantial in our position that we are a friendly cooperating neighbour of Guyana.’”
Mr. Editor according to a report on the Inter Press Service News Agency website dated, June, 11 1996 and I quote, “the Guyana government is hailing it as the kind of example which other regional leaders should follow, but the opposition party in Trinidad and Tobago is taking the government to task for agreeing to allow a substantial part of the South American Republic’s debt to go unpaid.
“Guyana has `picked the pockets of Trinidad and Tobago,’ says Keith Rowley, former Minister of Agriculture under the People’s National Movement (PNM) government led by Patrick Manning. The PNM was defeated in general elections in November last year.
“Rowley says his party does not support the present government’s decision and would like to see the money owed to Trinidad and Tobago repaid through assets such as forestry land, rice and gold mining interests which he says Guyana has in abundance”.
Editor I ask, is this report is really true? If so can we really trust the Prime Minister?
It was also disclosed that among several areas, Trinidad expressed an interest in cooperating with Guyana in the area of security, in Wednesday’s edition of the TT Daily Express, a report was headlined, “Seven people were killed in the space of nine hours on Monday, pushing the murder toll to 390 for 2018”.
On that note I would say thank you TT but no, thank you.
Editor, Trinidad and other Caribbean countries for years, have treated Guyanese with disdain, while I do not support, a tit-for-tat, I say watch these folks carefully.
Yours faithfully,
Handell Duncan
