Dear Editor,
Reference is made to the news item on Greg Meeks being selected as Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee of the US Congress; it is a very powerful position. Meeks has a long history with Guyanese. He is a man of integrity who will support consolidation of democracy in Guyana and continue to abhor fraudulent elections as he did from March to July.
I know Meeks well with a history going back to late 1997. We would meet at public events where he was an invited guest and speaker; he is a terrific speaker who captures your attention with a strong, lucid voice. The last constructive meet was in February in Richmond Hill where we talked about selection of the Democratic nominee. I asked him publicly if he would endorse Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination; he was non-committal and in fact seemed to be supporting another candidate. He in turn asked publicly who I would support because he knows I volunteered for every election campaign. I indicated I was volunteering for Joe Biden and that he would win the nomination as well as the Presidency. Both are now facts.
Meeks represents the 5th Congressional District that includes greater Richmond Hill and areas where Indo-Guyanese predominate – over 100K of them. Guyanese would recognize the name as the African American Congressman, who along with a few others, called on the Granger government to accept the outcome of the recount of votes undertaken by the High Level Caricom team; two other Black members of Congress, Yvette Clarke (Jamaican American) and Hakeem Jeffries purportedly opposed the recount and its outcome and the USA’s involvement to pressure the Granger Administration to accept the outcome of the elections. Jeffries and Clarke represent districts where thousands of Afro Guyanese are settled. Clarke and Meeks along with Albio Sires of New Jersey, the Chair of the Western Affairs sub-Committee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, visited Guyana late January 2020 to assess the situation for free and fair elections meeting the President and Opposition figures. On their return, Meeks and Clarke met Guyanese in February in two separate meetings — Richmond Hill and Flatbush — reporting on their visit; they both said that Granger committed to and they themselves called for free and fair elections. Meeks was consistent in his position on free and fair elections in Guyana throughout the five months ordeal while Clarke’s position disappointingly shifted. I knew Clarke when she first ran to replace her mother in the City Council from Brooklyn. I attended her first fundraiser in Richmond Hill for City Council. She returned to Richmond Hill for fundraisers when she ran for Congress; she raised substantial funds. Indo-Guyanese political leaders in Richmond Hill were disappointed that she was not very supportive of the community.
Meeks replaces Elliott Engel as Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and would continue in the footsteps of his predecessor, a strong advocate of free and fair elections; Engel also called for respect of the outcome of the March 2 election and the recount. I also know the Bronx Congress-man Engel quite well. I lived in the Bronx for six years when I first came to USA to study. Mike Persaud and I lobbied him to issue a statement to call for free and fair elections in Guyana in 1992. In late 1991 or early 1992, we convinced him to deliver a talk on Guyana in Queens Village at the cinema owned by Ram Jodha and Herman Singh (?) in exchange for a campaign fundraiser. There he made a public statement calling for free and fair elections in Guyana. He later issued a public press release on free and fair elections that was carried by the press. Regrettably, we were not successful at the fundraiser as ACG was not supportive. After Jagan’s victory, Engel issued a congratulatory letter.
Meeks will continue in the tradition of Engel. And I have every confidence that he would be supportive of efforts to consolidate democratic gains in Guyana.
Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram
