Dear Editor,
When Forbes Burnham took Guyana into CARICOM (1973) it was by illegal dictate; the Treaty of Chaguaramas was signed two weeks after a rigged election saw Burnham emerge with an astonishing 70% of the vote. The leaders of the Caribbean sat around that table, all knew that Burnham was an illegitimate leader, and that the people of Guyana were firmly under the yoke of oppression; the blood of Bholanauth Parmanand and Jagan Ramessar was still visible in the street where the duo was brutally murdered while bravely trying to prevent the rigging of that election and those shockwaves had not subsided. The silence of the CARICOM leaders on the issue equaled complicity.
Guyana is now a democratic nation and we, the people, would welcome the opportunity to make our views on CARICOM membership known via the ballot box. A national referendum must be held to ask our opinion as a matter of some urgency, as CARICOM treaty ‘obligations’ seem to be eroding our sovereignty. The upcoming Local Government Elections can be expanded to include a referendum question of ‘Stay’ or ‘Go’ and value can be had from the billions of dollars poured into GECOM annually. The government can then take action based on the genuine will of the people. I, for one, would like to stop eating fruits from the poisoned CARICOM tree.
Sincerely,
Robin Singh
