Dear Editor,
In the wake of the remonstrations by the intrepid Secretary to the Cabinet, Dr R F Luncheon, consequent upon the ill-advised interventions of former American Ambassa-dor Brent Hardt in Guyana’s internal politics, particularly its municipal affairs, the opposition elements sought to chastise the government on the pretext that they were sanctimonious enigmas of constitutional safeguards and international relations. However, their babble of papal piety and diplomatic grace suffered a stinging rebuke in the form of a classical exposition of the principles of international law and conventions by a most apolitical Guyanese elder, Professor Duke Pollard, retired Justice of the Caribbean Court of Justice, referring as he did to “chapter and verse” from sources of unquestionable authority. Few, even among the non-cognoscenti, would dare doubt his exceptional credentials.
Surprisingly, support from an ex-Cabinet Minister of Foreign Trade and International Co-operation, Dr Henry Jeffrey, has put the cat among the pigeon-headed malcontents whose nationalism was unwittingly compromised on the altar of political expediency, exposing their sad state of pertinent learning and knowledge.
The major Cabinet members, both visible and invisible participants of the appropriate reaction to the persistent demonstration of uncouth violations attributable to this defiant Ambassador, not the least prominent of which was his arrogant reaction to the government’s position on the LEAD Project, must feel vindicated that their scrupulous defence of the principles of sovereignty was worthy of public articulation at a forum where others who may have, or may have been inclined to replicate this kind of invasive discourtesy, would now be obliged to recalibrate their public utterances. The message was a clarion call for them to rein in their effusive interference in Guyana’s internal affairs and the current Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs should feel some measure of comfort that his learned advice to President D Ramotar and his Cabinet colleagues has met with approbation at such an esteemed judicial level.
It may also be a timely reminder to the persons whose commentaries reflect a deep-seated resentment for any and all actions of the current executive government, among whom is one who describes himself as a financial analyst/attorney-at-law, that in a previous administration, two American Ambassadors, Roberts and Admiral Thomas, with whom he was known to be associated, had their tenures abbreviated for not dissimilar activities. Incoming Ambassadors should therefore take warning, as the Rastaman is wont to say.
Yours faithfully,
Justice Charles R Ramson SC
Attorney-General and Minister
of Legal Affairs (rtd)
