Dear Land of Guyana by Moses V. Nagamootoo – A book review by Christopher Ram (Part 2)

Introduction

There are five parts to Nagamootoo’s Dear Land of Guyana but none of these identifies the theme or what the reader can expect of the chapters within those uneven parts. In the Preface the author writes rather casually about the clinching of the first petroleum agreement in 1999 and its “modification” in 2016, showing that he too did not then, or even now, understand the statutory framework governing the petroleum sector – made more regrettable coming from an attorney-at-law with years of practice. He wrote that in 1969, the PPP enlisted as a Marxist-Leninist party and that following the 1968 rigged elections, he supported its preparation “for all forms of resistance, including armed struggles”. He writes that after the death of Cheddi Jagan in 1997, the PPP began to lose its authentic democratic credentials and became tainted with corruption.