Dear Editor,
Due to the temporary absence of my wife, I did some shopping in and around the City, meeting with a cross-section of citizens, including vendors. On our way home, I was greeted with a pleasant refreshing heavy drizzle of rainfall. With the heavy traffic, I regarded the drizzle like blessings from the heavens. Blessings indeed. With the abundance of natural resources, diamonds, timber, gold, manganese and now oil and gas, we Guyanese, are the luckiest folks on this planet. Lucky, because coupled with the above abundance of natural resources, fortunately, we are not required to deal with several feet of snow, hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis or volcanoes. The above is unknown to the three quarter million citizens of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana.
On reaching home, I had read to me two letters of interest, one written by Samuel A. Hinds, Ambassador of Guyana to the USA and the OAS, former Prime Minister and President, titled ‘We are coming to come but not yet there,’ Stabroek News 6th March, 2024. His letter regurgitated the well-worn sentiments of certain folks as he turned the pages of his understanding of our history. These sentiments, as expressed in his letter, comes as no surprise. Recalled, on Emancipation Day, from his lofty position, he told a group of Guyanese assembled to celebrate the occasion of the date that slavery ended in the British Empire. The gathering adverted to the horrors of the slave trade and the need for reparative justice. This worthy high-ranking gentleman told them to ‘forget the past’.
His letter, like others, studiously avoided the present plunder and rape of our natural resources at the behest, if not connivance, of some of our local leaders. Not a word, as Guyana is now travelling on an ignominious road towards recolonisation. Ignoring the rights of our indigenous people, forgetting the horrors of slavery, taking little account of the labour and hardships of indentureship, and no demonstration of ancestral piety by recognising those whose blood, sweat and tears civilised our coastal belt and discovered the minerals in our interior. I said to myself ‘pity those who speak the words of our erstwhile masters’.
With respect to the letter by the other former President, my friend and brother, Donald Ramotar, titled ‘Indian Nationalists despised Cheddi Jagan for not pursuing a racist political line,” also published 6th March, 2024, Stabroek News, I understand the sentiments expressed but pose this question – Is the present leadership of the Peoples’ Progressive Party faithful to the beliefs and work of its founder, Dr. Cheddi B. Jagan and worst, is it not the case that the behaviour of those now in charge a contradiction of what Dr. Cheddi Jagan stood for? Donald, I believe that the time has come for all of our leaders to stop being petty in prevarication and form a united, a oneness, a respected cohesive force that will ensure our people are the principal beneficiaries of the creator’s blessings. If we do not realise this attitudinal metamorphosis, our blessings will be a curse.
Sincerely,
Hamilton Green
Elder
