Is Guyana about to repeat its tragic past?

 Dear Editor,

It boggles the mind why all those lawyers in the Opposition, including the leader of the AFC, Mr. Khemraj Ramjattan and Dr. Know It All, Christo­pher Ram who, as part of their legal training would have studied a fair amount ofPublic International Law, would support the American Ambassador’s public declaration that he will ignore a decision of Guyana’s Cabinet of Min­isters.

In that course,they would have learnt that the principles of national sovereignty and non-in­terference in the internal affairs of a country. They would have learnt that those are two of the most fundamental principles of 

 Public International Law.They would have learnt that no foreign diplomat can challenge the authority of a democratically elected government. 

Why then is the US ambassador, who certainly knows that his public chal­lenge to the authority of the Guyana Government is against all established diplomatic rules and con­ventions persistent to ignore a decision of a legitimately elected government? And most importantly, why is the Oppositionso strong in their support of the US Am­bassador in his blatant act of disregard for Guyana’s sovereignty? 

Those who are old enough or are knowledge­able enough about Guyana’s political history would not 

 find it difficult of answer the questions posed above. It is simply the beginning of a replay of the US interven­tion into Guyana’s internal politics in the 1960s. The difference may lie only in the purpose of the inter­vention. 

The Geopolitics of South America has changed. The two largest countries of South America, Venezuela and Brazil are no longer governed by puppet regimes of the US. Any attempt to install such regimes in these two countries as was 

 recently demonstrated in Venezuela, will not only be hugely expensive but also­doomed to failure. This is where the strategic impor­tance of Guyana to the US comes in. Get it? Guyana is uniquely and strategically placed between these two countries. 

How else then can the Americans ensure that they regain a firm foothold on the border of these countries without making Guyana a pawn in their geopolitics? The answer is a simple one 

 Go back to their old and trusted friends – the PNC now baptized the APNU and the cash strapped AFC are both willing to play the role of the long disinte­grated borne (UF). 

Over the past few years the world have bear witness to this sort of intervention in quite a few countries in the Arab world, democra­tizing them. The results of those interventions are seen every day on televisions worldwide. The American Government have converted stable and prosperous so­cieties into war zones and living hell for tens, if not hundreds of millions. All of those countries have been throw back decades in terms of their development. 

The methods used in those countries are similar to those currently being used by the US Ambas­sador to Guyana, that is, supporting and building the capacity of reactionary opposition forces which cannot gain power through the ballot box. Don’t for­get, that the APNU and AFC, whose capacities the US Ambassador wants to build, are the ones who for two consecutive years cut from the national budget all major infrastructureand investments projects that were designed to lay the foundations of a bright and prosperous Guyana. 

We Guyanese for the most part are intelligent people who want to live in a peaceful, democratic society governed by the rule of law. We must there­fore, guard against a few power hungry individuals who are willing to sell even their mothers for the sake of political power. 

Such selling out is noth­ing strange to those indi­viduals. When the PPP was in power in the early 60s they betrayed their mother (Guyana) for the sake of political power. We are yet to recover from the effects of that betrayal. The PPP is once again in power and those very individuals are at it again. If we cannot stop a replay of this tragic episode our history Guyana would be destroyed forever. 

Do we want Guyana to be the Egypt, Tunisia, Libya or Syria of South America? 

The people of Guyana, through a democratic pro­cess elected a President to make decisions on their behalf. His name is Mr. Donald Ramotar not Mr. Brent Hardt. 

Faruk Mohamed.