Dear Editor,
I noticed that some folks are still advancing a case for Ministers/MPs to retain dual citizenship, and continue to introduce an irrelevance about the diaspora’s potential role in our development.
I have made it clear that the diaspora, with dual or triple citizenship, must always be welcomed to share their skills and money to help develop Guyana. This is distinct and separate from being a member of the highest law-making body in the State.
Below, you will find extracts of two Oaths of Allegiance required to become a citizen of two countries, the USA and the UK.
USA: “I (name) hereby declare, on oath, that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign, prince, potentate, state or sovereignty of whom or which I have heretofore been a subject or citizen, that I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America.”
UK: “I (name) swear by Almighty God that on becoming a British Citizen, I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth the Second, Her Heirs and Successors according to Law”; pledge: “I will give my loyalty to the UK and respect its rights and freedoms.”
The above is clear.
Are we to be like some folks, who in Court swear on a holy book to speak the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, knowing fully well that in another moment they will be telling a lie? We carry the title of being Honourable Members of Parliament/Ministers. We must at all times be true to this elevated and lofty status.
The moral principle is that if we allow or condone our lawmakers (MPs and no one else) to swear allegiance to another State, they are in fact mitigating our Independence.
Are the proponents of Members of Parliament having dual citizenship not trivialising the exploits of ancestors Cuffy, Accabre, Quamina, the Enmore Martyrs, Hubert Nathaniel Critchlow, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, Forbes Burnham and those who took part in the independence struggle in the height of the Cold War?
Could it be that the above factors are alien to some of our friends, who now take for granted the sacrifice, perspicacity and vision of those who preceded them? The third line of our National Anthem states, ‘We are born of their sacrifice, heirs of their pains.’ We must not sing our Anthem and not be committed to those fine words.
If they fail to embrace ancestral piety, they will be easy victims to external forces.
In my earlier letter, I gave the proponents for constitutional change a gracious way out by saying that I hope my Party, the PNC, is not persuaded by what appears to be a momentary emotional reaction to an extant public issue.
Indeed, I hope there will be no need to write again on this subject and ask one and all to again read the Oaths of Allegiance of certain foreign countries.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green
