Luncheon reduces Manickchand to a wild animal
Dear Editor,
Dr Roger Luncheon, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, may have intended to provide cover for and defence of acting Foreign Minister Ms. Priya Manickchand whose toast at the Fourth of July celebration of the Independence of the United States of America, and farewell for its ambassador to Guyana Mr. Brent Hardt has drawn widespread criticism. There have been words like “disgust”, “lacking decorum”, “descent into the gutter”. But none of these can compare with Dr Luncheon’s “feral blast” which by implication reduces Ms. Manickchand to the level of a wild beast. It is insulting and demeaning for Dr Luncheon to associate any person, and moreso a woman, with such language. Ms. Manickchand should reject such an association with her, or any action taken by her. I believe that she should have refused to deliver such a “toast” which could only damage the relations between Guyana and United States of America and the public’s perception of her. Apart from the “toast” itself and its reception by the audience, two things struck me that night. The first is that it was the Prime Minister Mr. Samuel Hinds who was listed on the programme to deliver the remarks and toast on behalf of the Government of Guyana. Mr. Hinds was in Guyana and indeed in Georgetown that evening. After recovering from the shock of the toast many persons surmised that the Prime Minister would never agree to deliver such remarks and therefore chose to absent himself from the occasion. The view too is that the substantive Foreign Minister Ms. Carolyn Rodrigues, having been forced to accept Cabinet’s imposition, would have fallen sick suddenly. The second is that while Mr. Robert Persaud, Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment is a member of the Cabinet -which according to Dr Luncheon decided on Ms. Manickchand’s “feral blast” -he did not join Ms. Manickchand and Gail Teixeira in their unceremonious walkout after the blast. Indeed, Mr. Persaud and his wife later that evening engaged Mr. Hardt in a long and obviously polite conversation which ended with Mr. Persaud and his wife inviting the American Ambassador for a posed photograph. Dr. Luncheon is now confirming what many people think: that he had a big hand in Ms. Manickchand’s speech. But worse, his destructive role, in the mode of the animal headed for the abattoir, to use his animal anology, is lengthening. As Chairman of the NIS for twenty-two years he has single-handedly led that organisation to the precipice. He was prepared to defend, too, Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo whose best social skills were to cuss out citizens of this country. Now it seems that Dr. Luncheon, with his pernicious influence over an increasingly weak Cabinet is willing to risk Guyana’s relationship with important international players barring the Chinese on which his Cabinet is making Guyana increasingly and dangerously dependent. Dr. Luncheon must now tell Guyanese who were the Cabinet members who approved Ms. Manickchand’s feral blast.
Christopher Ram
