Dear Editor,
It is inevitable that the US House Representative, Mr. Hakeem Jeffries, continues to carry the divisive narratives of friends at Congress Place. Though not a US Senator, he is still well-placed to undermine the work of Guyana’s elected Government. His reluctance to accept a duly elected PPP/C Government is a signal to a majority part of the electorate that their voting rights are unsafe. It ought to remind voters that Congress Place has long invoked the Middle Passage to profit lucratively amongst friends in Washing-ton, whose draw must not be dismissed or aim underestimated. Mr. Jeffries is not alone. Make no mistake—the “aim” is to help undermine the electors’ Government by way of influencing Washington’s opinion on Guyana, especially from the corner of Young and Duke Streets in Georgetown.
Congress Place by their public relations firm in Washington tried to get the Congressional Black Caucus to interfere with GECOM’s 2020 elections declaration. Allegedly, they claimed in a required filing (per the Foreign Agents Registration Act) that an attempt to remove President David Granger or the “only Black Presi-dent” from South America was underway. It is not a new story. Upon the death of Mr. Forbes Burnham in August 1985, Mr. Desmond Hoyte said: “We shall draw strength in each other and ponder our common destiny as authoritatively defined for us by our great leader” (see “Guyana’s President Burnham dies at 62,” Los Angeles Times, August 7, 1985). The first thing he did to achieve his “common destiny” was to rig that year’s elections. Old enough to remember then, young enough to resist now—I was in high school when my parents’ ballots were cast aside by Mr. Hoyte, and the Leader of the Opposition and a British journalist assaulted on Elections Day in December 1985.
It was worse for my maternal grandfather, a World War II veteran of the UK’s Royal Air force, who was shot during action but survived the war. Imagine a man who fought the Nazis returned home but was unable to have his votes counted in Guyana—a Congress Place country. The second thing Mr. Hoyte did was to seek the blessings of African American lawmakers in the US, primarily the members of the Congressional Black Caucus, who were aware of the rigged elections but still feted Mr. Hoyte at a reception in 1988 in Washington, where Mr. Hoyte presented himself as Guyana’s elected representative. This is the history of my generation—people who grew up in the eighties’ Age of Farce. In Washington, Mr. Hoyte, an officer of the court, without actual or apparent authority from the electorate, nevertheless carried on his farce in the same Washington neighborhood where, 25 years earlier in August of 1963 a Civil Rights leader delivered his “I have a Dream” speech, calling for freedoms including voting rights for all.
The lesson is that Congress Place needs no elections or parliament with friends in Washington or and at the corner of Young and Duke Streets. A review of events between 2003 and 2006 is likely to reveal back-channel work by Congress Place to influence the shape of the 2006 elections and how Washington should interpret the violence in that period. This was especially so after a certain ambassador from Washington (sworn in 2001), who refused to entertain overtures from Congress Place, left Guyana after his chief security officer was kidnapped on April 13, 2003 during the crime blitz. This diplomat saw the gamesmanship of Mr. Hoyte and Congress Place in parliament, and stated so in an interview after he retired. Congress Place is reenacting the same gamesmanship now in parliament, while hoping to curry favors in Washington. His departure was welcomed by Congress Place because his replacement entertained their overtures for a very obvious reason: the Middle Passage. The evidence is visible in affidavits submitted by certain embassy employees in the Roger Khan case in Federal Court, from which one can see various Congress Place narratives implanted.
It is instructive that only recently Congress Place received a significant favour (likely requested) when Mr. Roger Khan’s initial return home in September 2019 was stalled, despite plans made by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency for his removal, and which may have occurred without the input of the very diplomat being criticized now by Mr. Jeffries. In sum, this desire of Congress Place and its Washington proxies seeking a recall of this career diplomat is both about her past opposition to rigged elections and having someone on the ground pliable enough to help disrupt Government in the future.
Sincerely,
Rakesh Rampertab
