Dear Editor,
I’m appalled at Wesley Kirton’s misguided letter in yesterday’s Stabroek News “Congressman Jeffries missed a good opportunity to raise the `concerns’ of his constituents”.
He does not have any knowledge of the facts of the communications between the Guyana government and Congressman Hakeem Jeffries’ staff.
Kirton said that Congressman Jeffries refused to meet with President Ali and contended that the Congressman missed an opportunity to have his concerns addressed.
Upon inquiry I was advised by the Congressman’s staff that Guyana’s Ambassador in Washington wrote the Congressman requesting an individual meeting with Irfaan Ali.
The congressman’s staff responded that there will be no one-on-one meeting, but that the Congressman is interested in a meeting between President Ali and all of the members of Congress who represent the majority of Guyanese across the US, including Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, as they all have similar concerns. The Embassy never responded to the Congressman’s request for such a meeting.
Obviously, Irfaan Ali is seeking out meetings for public relations photo opportunities to claim that Black Members of Congress love and respect him, because it seems that photographs with powerful Black people in America is their policy to address accusations of racism, rather than governing equitably for all Guyanese. The Congressman, I’m sure, is not interested in photo ops with Government of Guyana officials. He wants a meeting that will lead to resolution of the matters his constituents care about.
Apparently, the PPP government and Ali are not interested in solutions. They are interested in public relations stunts. They want to meet Congressman Hakeem Jeffries personally and individually.
But the Government of Guyana, and Irfaan Ali don’t get to dictate to a United States Congressman how his engagements and meetings are structured and who must be included or excluded.
Yours faithfully,
Rickford Burke