Dear Editor,
I read with dismay unfortunate comments made by Guyana’s acting Foreign Affairs Minister at the 238th independence anniversary celebrations of the United States at the home of outgoing Ambassador Brendt Hardt. The scandalous attack should be condemned in no uncertain terms.
I am wondering if Minister Priya Manickchand knows that the Ambassador’s home is US soil and it is a shame on Guyana for the country’s representative to rebuke the United States representative in its territory. Standards in the country of my birth have now reached their lowest ebb.
Someone indicated to me that a former Foreign Affairs Minister did not know that there was a difference between the Dominican Republic and the Commonwealth of Dominica (which is a member of Caricom).
If US Ambassador Hardt had in fact dabbled in Guyana’s internal political affairs by advocating local government elections and commenting publicly on other issues there is a procedure to record the complaint. I think that it is for this country’s Ambassador in the US Bayney Karran to send a diplomatic note to the White House via the State Department. It is unbelievable that the acting Foreign Affairs Minister rebuked the Ambassador at his home on the eve of his departure from Guyana after serving three years.
I doubt whether the Minister acted on her own; maybe it was sanctioned by her boss, President Donald Ramotar, who unfortunately is not one of our best diplomats or leaders. Moreover, to add to the damaging statement is a walk-out by Presidental Advisor Gail Teixeira, who was in politics long enough to know that this action was intolerable.
Yours faithfully,
Oscar Ramjeet
