Dear Editor,
I read with absolute horror the news report that the Governor of a neighbouring superpower was invited to be present at and speak on the platform of one of the parties contesting the upcoming elections.
I cannot imagine a more dangerous assault on the sovereignty of the Republic.
It is a long established law of international and diplomatic relations that foreign governments should not intervene in the internal affairs of any independent state, and to have a local political party, which professes to be national, invite a foreign government to endorse its election to office, is violation of that principle.
If we were to even remotely contemplate venturing down the road of inviting foreign governments or agents to endorse domestic political parties we might as well place the country on the auction block.
Has the party upon whose platform the Governor sat and spoke, considered what the consequences would be if every party contesting the election were to solicit support and endorsements from its favourite foreign government? Our friends in Caracas cannot believe their good fortune.
I have no doubt that the well equipped foreign ministry, with its corps of outstanding diplomats, must have read the New York Times article published on 4th instant entitled ‘Brazil’s Rising Influence meets Resistance,‘ immediately before the invitation to the Governor was issued.
The article opined “Brazilian endeavours are being met with wariness in several countries. A proposal to build a road through Guyana’s jungles to its coast stalled because of fears that Brazil could overwhelm its small neighbor with migration and trade. In Argentina, officials suspended a large project by a Brazilian mining company, accusing it of failing to hire enough locals.”
Isn’t it ironic that the party of Comrade Cheddi Jagan who complained so bitterly about being removed from office by covert foreign intervention in the 1960s, has now begun a new race for the overt intervention of foreign governments in the elections of an independent and democratic Guyana?
Unless this grave assault is rectified immediately the resignation of a high official from Takuba Lodge would be a minimum starting point.
Our national poet Martin Carter perhaps said it best “No madness like this sanity.“
Yours faithfully,
C A Nigel Hughes
