Dear Editor,
It is apparent that the proposed renaming of the Ogle International Airport to Eugene F Correia International Airport has opened an ants’ nest. Since President Granger proposed it on September 17 at the commissioning of a new aircraft by Trans Guyana Airways, a company owned by the Correia group of companies, there have been a number of articles in the press alleging or responding to claims that the Correia group controls the Ogle International Airport to the detriment of the other operators there. There have also been allegations that naming the airport Correia International Airport when other operators compete with the Correia group of companies for business, would give the Correia group an unfair advantage. In the most recent article appearing in this newspaper (‘No single airline controls Ogle, Correia says’ SN, November 14) Mr Michael Correia, referred to as the Chairman of Ogle Airport Inc and owner of Trans Guyana Airways, said that what was important was “…the fact that President [David] Granger and his government have decided that Eugene F Correia is a Guyanese who has made a difference to our country and is being honoured and highlighted so that the youths of Guyana may know their history.
“His race, name or background is not important but what is important is what he has done for our country”. It is regrettable that Mr Correia did not go on to say what specifically Eugene Correia did for our country so that we would all know our history. Nevertheless, to say that the Ogle Airport should be named for Eugene Correia because he was one of the pre-eminent national figures in our history that so important a thing as one of our two airports should carry his name is to give him a position in our history that, frankly, he does not deserve, having regard to the contributions of many other unrecognized Guyanese whose names and contributions are familiar to us all. That is not, of course, to denigrate either Mr Correia’s contributions to the country or the Correia name, which is synonymous with pioneering in business in Guyana. It was said when Mr Correia’s name was proposed, depending on which report in the press one read, that either he was Guyana’s first Minister responsible for aviation or that he was the first post-independence Minister responsible for aviation in Guyana. Either one is disingenuous and suggests that no Guyanese person was Minister responsible for aviation before Mr Correia. In fact, there were three Guyanese Ministers responsible for aviation before Mr Correia, whon was appointed in 1964, eleven years after Guyanese began holding ministerial positions after elections in which all Guyanese were permitted to vote. Mr Correia would, therefore, more accurately be described as the first PNC Minister responsible for aviation, having been appointed in 1964 after the coalition between the PNC and the UF. Although our position in Guyana is far from Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Macondo where “the world was so recent that many things lacked names and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point”, if it is that the Ogle International Airport must be given another name, then we should look no further than to the person who actually became the first Minister responsible for aviation after the first election in which the Guyanese descendants of the original settlers, enslaved and indentured immigrants were able to vote with the only qualification being that they were of a certain age, unlike in previous elections when voters were required to own a certain amount of property. That person was only Minister for one hundred and thirty-three days, but he spent the rest of his life fighting for Guyanese independence and then for democracy and has never been away from involvement in Guyanese politics (with the PPP, the PNC and the WPA) and society since then. Only this year, his ninetieth, I saw him and listened to him give a most lucid and knowledgeable account of a period of our history in the Walter Rodney Commission, although I regret that I did not approach him, shake his hand and thank him for his contribution to our country. As far as I am aware, he has not been honoured by his country in any way except by the universal acclaim in which he is held by all Guyanese (who largely know his name and at least of some of his contributions to our country). That person is none other than Eusi Kwayana. He needs no encomium, but as a reminder to what he has done in his long life in service to Guyana, one can read a letter written earlier this year by David Hinds (SN, April 5) titled ‘Eusi Kwayana: Political practice grounded in political morality’. When the British suspended the constitution in 1953 and removed the government from office, Mr Kwayana, who had been a Minister for just over four months, was restricted from leaving Buxton and then detained for a few months at Atkinson airbase, and some of his comrades fighting against colonialism and for independence were jailed (including the person who later became the second Guyanese Minister responsible for aviation). During that charged period when Mr Kwayana was restricted and detained and many of the Guyanese fighting against colonialism and for the right of Guyanese to run our own affairs were brought before the courts, tried and jailed for having the temerity to want independence and self-governance, Mr Eugene Correia, obviously a friend, served at the request of the colonial authorities in the interim legislative council appointed by the Governor. That government, owing its existence to appointment by the colonial authorities, was a sad episode in Guyana’s history. It replaced the first democratically elected government Guyana ever saw and lasted for four years while we marked time in the fight against colonialism and for independence. Mr Michael Correia was right. The youths of Guyana ought to know their history and who has done what for our country.
Yours faithfully,
Kamal Ramkarran
