Dear Editor,
I ask when will this charade end, when will the propaganda blitz be suspended? We note that President Donald Ramotar and wife went to South Africa to attend the funeral of its greatest son, Nelson Mandela.
Are their memories short or, is the PPP leadership, as the old folks say, just plain ‘bold face’? The PPP government did not even have the sophistication or grace to follow the example of our neighbour Trinidad and Tobago whose Prime Minister invited and took along the Leader of the Opposition to the funeral. Not so in Guyana ‒ but the attitude here seems to be one of enormous arrogance and disregard for the rest of the society.
The irony and the contradiction is that in the 1970s the Burnham-led government, took a motion to Parliament for Guyana to donate an annual sum of US$50,000 through the Organization of African Unity (OAU) to help in the struggle in southern Africa, approximately US$50,000,000 in today’s currency, apart from much assistance given to the freedom fighters’ crusade against apartheid.
In Parliament, the PPP members opposed this initiative to help southern Africa. I recall the PPP’s loud desk-thumping, shouting, “We cannot afford it.” Yes, the PPP opposed us helping Mandela’s cause financially, yet with no shame the government excludes from the Guyana delegation those who were consistent in the support of South Africa.
The PNC did not turn its back on the people of South Africa when they needed moral and financial support. I have no doubt that President Ramotar sought photo opportunities for publicity in the state-controlled media here. What a country! Of course their massive propaganda machine will attempt to paint a different picture.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green, JP
