Cameron should be denied entry to Guyana

Dear Editor,

I have taken the trouble to read and consider the lamentations of the many scribes who have contributed their respective ounces to the salted potion of the decision of the WICB to transfer the 3rd Test from Guyana to Barbados, purportedly on the account of the Cricket Bill passed by the PPP/C and APNU in the National Assembly. Dave Cameron, the President of WICB, demanded that President Donald Ramotar must give him his assurance under seal that he will not assent to the aforementioned Bill passed by our otherwise fractious and fragmented National Assembly. It is ironic and laughable that this interloper would make this egregious demand at a time when our duly elected legislators are calling on the President to assent to the Bills passed by this same Assembly! Confusion reigns supreme in this democracy.

The WICB has constituted itself as a supra-national arbiter of Guyana’s internal affairs and its decision is an affront to the sovereignty of this Republic. One only has to consider the economic and social consequences to conclude that Mr Cameron must be penalised for his shameless and indefensible intrusion. Our iconic Clive Lloyd and Basil Butcher who will be remembered long after Cameron would have faded into oblivion, have expressed their views, but to no avail, and his effrontery must be dealt with condignly if only to send the strongest message to others who dare flaunt their hauteur in the face of a sovereign head of state.

The solution appears to be both legal and political. This withdrawal from Guyana’s Providence Stadium where all cricket fans may have the last opportunity to see another icon of ours, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, in person, given his age, would no doubt amount to the subversion of our economy. Apart from Guyanese fans others from many countries will have attended and Guyana stands to lose a sizeable amount of revenue. Our immigration law must be given the plenitude of its expression by this sovereign state. Therefore I wish to adopt an observation of our only surviving, legendary jurist in a celebrated case in our Court of Appeal, to wit:-

“Now, more than ever, it has become a matter of preponderating importance to ensure that persons of ill-will… are kept beyond the limits of our shores…. [since] the law is not a brooding omnipresence in the sky, but an operational art in society”

I volunteer to serve this man with the Order deeming him a prohibited immigrant at any of our ports of entry.

In the alternative or in conjunction, Caricom must recognize that cricket is the glue that binds the entire Caribbean polity as nothing else has been able to do. It is therefore incumbent on the leaders of Caricom to give expression to the adhesive aspiration of its founding fathers and I would respectfully suggest that they instruct their respective nationals not to turn up at any rescheduled venue. Mr Cameron and his co-conspirators would then face a financial and administrative dilemma which would consign them to the scrap-heap of history, and deservedly so.

 

Yours faithfully,
Justice Charles R Ramson, SC
Attorney General and Minister of
Legal Affairs (rtd)