Dear Editor,
Stabroek News in its November 19, 2023 editorial headlined ‘Patriotism and Geneva’ wrote; ‘No one should be impugning the allegiance to this country of any of our leaders, past or present.’ I agree with S/N’s opening salvo but with one caveat, there are leaders and leaders as well as leaders at various levels and of varying degrees. Since it appears that S/N may have limited their definition of leader to either a Prime Minister or Head of State past and present, it is not my intention to go there in this matter. In a blunt reminder to Mr. Singh, S/N said; ‘In going to the ICJ we are very much in consonance with the Agreement, and no one on this side of the boundary as established in 1899, should be condemning it.’
And in response to what appeared to be an invocation of what was attempted in the past, S/N was strong in its rebuke to Mr. Singh; ‘Leaving aside for the moment the fallaciousness of the argument he puts forward in defence of his conclusion, it must be said that his position is not just utter tripe, it is downright dangerous.’ Added to that, from a historical perspective and more so, at this critical juncture of our country’s history, the allegiance to country must not be brought into question as was the case during the 1964-1969 presidency of Raul Leoni. Incidentally, it was during the Leoni presidency that in October 1966, that just five months after its independence, Guyana suffered the occupation of Ankoko.
We get a feeling of deja vu in view of what was written by Robin Singh, since it appears that we are being pushed back to the 1966-1969 period with a call on history to repeat itself but with a new twist viz; ‘… the Geneva Agreement was a poisoned chalice’ and that ‘the government should undertake research to discredit it..’ Further, we are told that ‘maybe we can work on rebuilding relations with our neighbour, Venezuela, in the spirit of Simón Bolívar and Hugo Chávez, ushering in an era of peace and prosperity for both nations.’ At this point in time, Guyanese do not want the current Guyana -Venezuela relations to be framed in neither the tragic nor the farcical repetition of history.
Both Neville Bissember and Robin Singh hail from a lineage of jurists and foundation members of the PNC, but it is clear from their published letters that the two young men have diametrically opposite views on what must be our collective attitude and posture in respect to Venezuela’s spurious claim to the Essequibo. Bissember’s principled position debunking Singh’s proposition that a “sea lane” could be given to Venezuela in exchange for a full and final settlement of the Land boundaries as they exist and ‘the naïve and misguided view that had there been an agreement on a sea lane, our land borders would be settled and our oil would be safely ensconced within our EEZ cocoon, free from challenge or military threat’ must be applauded.
Sincerely,
Clement J. Rohee