By Stephen Kangal
March 10, 2020
In the absence of Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley from T&T the foreign policy position and posturing on Guyana today seems to be in total shambles, nonsensical if not very contradictory and inconsistent at worst.
Its policy of detached non-interference that gained traction in the Maduro political crisis in Venezuela cannot be applied willy -nilly to the current stalemate in finalising the official results of the Guyanase elections for three unique reasons:
– Guyana and T&T belong to the same economic and market space (CSME) and political tension in Georgetown can strangle the operations of CSME against the interests of T&T and other Caricom states;
– T&T and Guyana being members of the Commonweath, OAS and the Caribbean Community (Caricom) are deemed to support/endorse the findings and pronouncements of the respective Observer Missions mounted by these three regional bodies and accredited by the Guyanese Government unless T&T absolved itself previously from the participation and findings of these Observer Missions which it has not done hitherto;
– T&T and Guyana with other Caricom States subscribe to the tenets of functional co-operation in their common economic space as well as well as co-ordination and even harmonisation of foreign policies in the political sphere in the Treaty of Chaguaramas.
Our Ministers including the absentee Minister of Foreign Affairs who has not spoken on this high profile regional issue, do not seem to appreciate that T&T is bound by the lack of electoral credibility and transparency statements and findings of these Observer Missions having not previously exercised its sovereign option to be excluded or to disengage.
Having regard to T&T articulating and repeating the same pedantic, irrelevant and unconvincing statement of non-interference in what it considers to be the domestic internal affairs of Guyana in the face of the argumentation cited above as well as the emerging patent denial of the will and unambiguously telegraphed wishes expressed via the ballot boxes of the majority of the Guyanese electorate, it must be embarrassing to the thinking people to T&T who demand a higher standard of diplomacy and statesmanship—not waffling uncoordinated and discordant nonsense from a mottley lot.
There is a difference between TnT policy on Guyana and the PNM policy on Guyana. The PNM policy on Guyana under Eric Williams was to support dictator Lynden Sampson Forbes Burnham. This Williams did by sending free oil to Guyana to the tune of $500 million US. The PNM kept Burnham in power who conducted a war against Cheddi supporters resulting in over 300,000 Indo Guyanese fleeing banditry and evil. One lady jumped into a cesspit to escape rapist. Little Indian children were skinned like chicken meat. Many were shot and killed. The brutality started in Wismar where mobbed of Afro men invaded Indian homes.
Here is an excerpt “ “The majority of the Africans laughed and jeered at the East Indians as, blood stained and battered, raped and naked, shocked and destitute, they helplessly went their way to the only place of refuge, the Wismar Police Station. African women played their part in these events to the fullest extent.
“Your Commissioners are convinced that ‘this was a diabolical plot, ingeniously planned and ruthlessly executed.’ ….
“On the day of the disturbances at Wismar-Christianburg, there were 57 cases of assault, including rape. Two persons were killed, and at least 197 houses were destroyed in addition to several cases of looting“.
One can understand the reluctance to recognize Granger as President. He is a military man and like Hitler who was an army officer. They see friend or foes. If they see foes, the blood will never stop flowing.
It seems to me that PM Rowley has realised the foolishness of the T&T’s non-interfering policy in relation to the hijacking of the Guyanese elections results and instead of supporting Imbert’s bilateral non-interference nonsense has changed in support of the multilateral approach by Caricom that has now sent a high powered Heads of Governments Mission led by current Chairperson Mia Mottley and includes Skerrit of Dominica, Gonzales of St Vincent and Mitchell of Grenada. We all wish this Mission and other Observers success in their mediation and reconciliation process to restore peace, calm and indeed the restoration of the democratic will and process in Guyana.
People should watch this documentary ( “Race relations and racism in Guyana – Freddie Kissoon and David Hinds” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2WUTeQc-u_s ) and see if they can develop on it instead of peddling poor narratives that generalise about Africans and Indians in Guyana.