Dear Editor
On Tuesday September 7, Kaieteur News carried a story ‘Guyana’s appoints convicted fraudster as Kuwait ambassador’.
The author tried to make it seem that this was not the first time and linked the fraud conviction of Ambassador Shamir Aly with the former Ambassador SatyadeowSawh in the following paragraph:-
“Earlier this year, Ally was also named as Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Guyana Office for Investment (GO-Invest).
“This is the second time that Guyana actually appointed a convicted felon to a diplomatic posting. The last time this happened was in 1993 when the late President Dr. Cheddi Jagan appointed Satyadeow Sawh as ambassador to Venezuela.
That appointment did not go through because Venezuela responded to the report on Sawh and refused to grant its agreement”.
This statement is absolutely untrue. Had the author done any cursory check even on Wikipedia or with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs this lie would never have been published.
Unless the author deliberately meant to make it seem that this was not the first time by casting aspersions on a former Ambassador and a PPPC Minister, Satyadeow Sawh, who was assassinated in 2005 along with his brother and sister.
For the record, Satyadeow Sawh was appointed in 1993 as Guyana’s Ambassador to Venezuela. He served in the post for 3 years and was awarded the country’s second highest honour, the Order of Francisco de Miranda (First Class) upon completion of his tenure. In 1996, he was recalled to Guyana by the late President, Dr Cheddi Jagan, to serve as a Minister within the Ministry of Agriculture.
He became the Minister of Fisheries, Crops and Livestock, with responsibility for Forestry, and was later named the acting Minister of Agriculture, the designation which he held up to his death.
Yours faithfully,
Gail Teixeira, MP
Parliamentary Opposition Chief Whip
