Dear Editor,
I recently watched an episode of POL101, with Dr. David Hinds hosting Major (Ret’d.) Retemeyer as special guest. The Major was invited to explain what, if anything, was achieved by the now defunct State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA). An invited guest on a previous edition had asserted that the agency had achieved much, whilst Major Retemeyer was already on record as having asserted quite the opposite. I was satisfied with the way Major Retemyer clarified the position previously attributed to him.
Suggesting that the respective positions taken in the past reflected the thrust of the question as put to the guest on those occasions, he pointed out that the mandate of the agency was to recover State assets not lawfully possessed at the material time, and he properly included the several Government-purchased vehicles and Government-allocated residential properties that were recovered which would otherwise have remained in the hands of private individuals, the payments in settlement made by some owners of property in the Pradoville Scheme and the work that was under way, in collaboration with agencies of other countries, to stem the illegal traffic of gold out of Guyana.
The former CEO of SARA noted also the statistical fact that on average worldwide, it takes some 6 years to successfully trace and recover unlawfully held assets in this category. I could not help but notice, however, some utterings I found very unhelpful in Dr. Hinds’ presentation. Firstly, he disparaged the recently concluded CPL semi-finals and finals held at our Providence Stadium. He dubbed it “festival cricket”. He got that expression wrong. Surely he had in mind the inaugural Cricket Carnival – a new carnival introduced to coincide with the annual August-September series advertised as “the biggest party in sport”. Yes, there are cricket purists who do not regard anything other than traditional Test Cricket as real cricket – and Dr. Hinds could well be a ‘Test Cricket only’ guy – but the fact remains he is Guyanese.
I do not consider that as a patriotic Guyanese Dr. Hinds should have been upset as a matter of course, and he wasn’t, like many Guyanese were when the Amazon Warriors were knocked out after valiantly surging up the rankings from their worst start in the 10-year-old series. I do think, however, that a patriotic Guyanese intellectual like Dr. Hinds would see the bigger picture of Guyana hosting the semis and finals for 3 years from 2022. Dr. Hinds has not thus far gone on to embrace the bigger picture.
The reason for his standoff came out in the course of that 29 September 2022 episode. After providing a helpful history lesson about Caribbean integration, Dr. Hinds advised his international and Guyana-based audience that “we have to remind the PPP of their anti-integrationist history” – and also warned that “we have to be suspicious of the love-fest between the PPP and CARICOM”. His fundamental, or perhaps indeed only reason, appears to be the fact that Cricket Carnival is the brainchild of President Ali. That is not a valid reason in my respectful opinion.
The current buzz attached to Guyana, neither felt nor understood by the man-in-the-street who’s still hustling today as before just “to eat a food”, is generally but not only about our oil. The buzz is also about our tourism potential. What we Guyanese take for granted or simply do not know about, is very attractive to legions of middle-income people from the developed countries in particular. We need to advertise it – and that is the opportunity for our country presented on a platter by CPL semis and finals in Guyana for 3 straight years. Cricket Carnival blends in nicely – bringing in non-oil revenue by the inflow of visitors from overseas.
Every snapshot, however short, of Guyana’s interior, preserved colonial structures and our expanding and developing city infrastructure, is of advertisement or promotional value. It is my view that Dr. Hinds ought to rethink how he comments on subjects that necessarily concern the interests of all Guyanese. A focus on history to stymie obviously patriotic and progressive ideas is misplaced. History is most relevant when used as a guide to avoid repeating approaches now known to be flawed – or as a guide or road map of how to do things better.
Sincerely,
Ronald Bostwick
