Dear Editor,
I believe it is necessary to comment on the points made by P.D. Sharma who wrote from Los Angeles, California in a letter entitled `Assistance from neutral institutions like the Carter Center should be welcomed’ in the March 24th edition of Stabroek News.
I think Mr. Sharma may have good intentions and may even consider himself sincere. However, he has missed the fundamental point in my concern for the involvement of the Carter Center.
From the very beginning I hold strong to the view that if we are to prove our maturity and independence, matters which are clearly internal should be settled by and among ourselves.
Mr. Sharma clearly is the victim of propaganda generated in the early 90s. First, he is quite inaccurate when he accuses me of leading street protests that led Jimmy Carter to fear for his life. I don’t know whether Mr. Carter expressed such fears to him or is he making an assumption – but that’s another matter.
Editor, let me recap briefly some events of that fateful day for the records and for the benefit of the likes of Mr. Sharma.
On Election Day 1992, with members of my family, I arrived at the Lodge Primary School to cast our ballots. Afterwards, three persons approached me, I remember one name, a Mr. Moore, a lady who had just started a small funeral service and another female. They were all armed with their identification cards, but when they approached the Poll Clerk, their names could not be found. They confirmed that they had checked and that their names did appear on the list posted on the lower flat of the said school earlier.
I confirmed this and called the Chairman of the Elections Commission to report this situation. He immediately dispatched the Deputy Chief Election Officer, Mr. Stanley Singh who noted the discrepancy in the list being used by the Poll Clerk. He removed the list that was earlier posted at the School and after identifying himself, he advised the Poll Clerk present to use that list instead.
The Poll Clerk said that the instructions they received was to use only the list given to them that morning.
Recall, that GECOM supplied lists to certain areas late on Election Day. In areas of West Demerara and Georgetown the lists arrived after 6:00 a.m resulting in some cases, voting starting after 6:00 a.m.
In moving around the City there were similar situations, Ruimveldt, La Penitence, and other areas.
Concerned that it was apparent that many of our supporters were being denied their right to vote, I approached President Hoyte and told him it was clear that the list generated, we understood, at the instance of the Carter Center was seriously flawed and that he should use his authority to abort the process.
His reply and I have one witness, still alive to this conversation, was ‘let the chips fall where they will.’ Later, along with Dr. Reid, they began advising persons that they should utilize the opportunity to vote using a ‘Tendered Ballot.’
I understand that this was the advice of a Carter Center operative on the ground that day.
I always respected my chronological seniors, Hoyte and Reid, but as I noted later, they acted like ‘school boys’ and didn’t listen to one who had been on the hustings since 1952, 1953.
Sensing the tension build up in Georgetown, and knowing I would be blamed for any ugly incident, with a few companions I left the City and did not return until that evening.
So, Mr. Sharma is quite wrong, I did not want to cause mayhem; therefore P.D. Sharma owes me an apology.
The other concern, beyond the principal position, described in my early letter, President Jimmy Carter persuaded President Hoyte to give up overseas voting denying Guyanese who lived abroad the right to vote. This right is enjoyed by every American citizen.
Earlier, I suggested to Mr. Hoyte that if the list of overseas voters was bloated (current language), that it should be sanitized but not completely abandoned.
Mr. Sharma should know. I never met Mr. Carter in Guyana, even though I was Prime Minister and known to be one of the principal political activists of the PNC.
Next Mr. Sharma should forgive me for my reference to the ‘deep south.’
We are all the products of our childhood.
I was weaned by my Mother who lived and worked in the United States of America in the 1920s and early 1930s, and spent a short time in a Southern State and told me of many horror stories. One such was travelling on a train which when it reached the Mason Dixon line, burly white conductors will then bellow ‘Niggers get behind.’
Let me say this, the American people as a whole had made commendable and massive strides to deal with racial bigotry, which caused the American Civil War.
I write this letter from a southern state and where I have encountered with no exceptions, white folks from the highest professional level to ordinary people who showed kindness, decency and a sense of love. That’s the America I can now speak about.
Perhaps, thanks to the work of President John F. Kennedy, Linden Baynes Johnson and Civil Rights Leader, Martin Luther King (Jnr). America must be congratulated for this quantum leap from darkness to light where terms to the ‘darkies’ are no longer used.
The fact that pockets of the old confederate ideology still exist is the reality of human history in every Continent of the World.
In Mr. Sharma’s reference to the triumvirate, he may think he is making a moot point. I was not attempting any ethnic balance but Mr. Sase Narine stands out as one of our prominent Leaders who even though at one time, leading a Hindu organization has the distinction of seeking ethnic harmony at all times.
Fortunately, my triumvirate, turns out to be a good one.
I mentioned Ashton Chase who is mixed and Eusi Kwayana, the only two surviving persons of the 1953 Waddington Constitution where there were seven Ministers. (6 + 1).
If Mr. Sharma wants to discuss this matter, since we are both now in North America, he can call me any time at Tel No: 936-217-7311.
People who write must assemble all their facts to enhance their credibility.
I believe he meant well but is quite wrong.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green
