AMBASSADOR Brent Hardt on Wednesday night referenced the move by Americans, pre-independence, to take up arms to challenge the positions taken by King George, the Monarch of the United Kingdom (UK) who ruled is today the United States of America (USA).
He said: “He (King George) refused his assent to laws. He refused to pass laws for the accommodation of large districts of people. He dissolved representative houses repeatedly and refused for a long time, after such dissolution, to cause others to be elected.”
“…in a short space of time the loyal citizens of the colonies came to feel that their unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness had been eroded or even usurped.
“The ability to attend to their own affairs in their local legislatures has been suspended and not restored…in taking this historic and courageous stand (the fight against King George) back in July 1776, the citizens of the American colonies came together to form what would be a great nation.”
According to him, one of the core strengths of our nation has been the “vital role” that state and local governments have played in “giving people the opportunity to participate directly in their governance” – something that Guyanese could be able to do through the holding of local government elections.
“The American history we celebrate serves as a valuable reminder of the importance of respecting rights to local representation. For among the American colonialists’ lament, we do well to recall that the elimination of local representative houses and the refusal for a long time, after such dissolution, to cause others to be elected, were the wellsprings of discontent that convinced once loyal British subjects to declare their independence,” Hardt said.
It is the latter comment, in particular, that struck a chord with some persons in different factions of society, who on the condition of anonymity shared the sentiment that the undercurrents of Hardt’s comments are troubling and cause for alarm.
One commentator told the Guyana Chronicle, “He (Hardt) is calling for people to rise up against the Government. Does he know the bloodshed he can cause? The Ambassador is calling for something that can put in the country’s stability in jeopardy and it will not be tolerated. Guyanese should condemn this and condemn it strongly.”
The US Ambassador has been one of the most vocal in the diplomatic corps calling on the current administration to hold local government elections, vocal to the point where he flayed the Head of State, Donald Ramotar for “selectively” abiding by Guyana’s constitution, even as the country awaits long-overdue local government elections.
It was this comment that constituted a ‘red line’ for the Government and resulted in Acting Foreign Affairs Minister, Priya Manickchand, taking Hardt to task at the same event where the US Ambassador repeated his call for the “restoration of effective, elected local government” in Guyana.
Manickchand stated that Hardt’s reference to King George and his power made her smile, particularly since the prevailing situation with the US’ hegemony is anything but democratic.
She concluded that his “nuanced resort” to justifying the insurrection in his remarks is profoundly disturbing.
