Dear Editor,
Please permit me space in the Village Voices to respond to a letter written by a well-known PPP apologist and supporter, Mr Vishnu Bisram. The letter was published in the Stabroek News and Guyana Chronicles of March 12, 2020. Given the biased reporting of some of these media houses, I hardly read them. It was by coincidence that I saw the missive of which I am responding to. Some media houses in Guyana would want us to believe that they are the voices of democracy in this country but at the same time, they do not publish letters critical of the PPP and the irregularities unearthed during the recount.
Editor, in his latest tirade against individuals who have taken a principled stand to reject the March 2020 General and Regional Elections (GRE) as fraudulent, Vishnu Bisram has turned his narcissism to Senator Roxanne Persaud of the 19th Congressional District of New York.
While commemorating Guyana’s 51st Republic Anniversary, the respected Senator, Roxanne Persaud, lambasted the Trump administration’s involvement in Guyana’s politics and the role the USA played in installing a Government in Guyana based on fraudulent votes. Vishnu Bisram has a problem with this stance. In attacking the respected senator, Vishnu Bisram, like other PPP apologists, found solace in statements and reports made by the OAS, Commonwealth, and CARICOM recount observers. Guyanese people may have kept quiet but we are not fools! Regime change in Guyana was as clear as day. First of all, editor, it is public knowledge that the so-called international community narrative was spearheaded by the ambassadors of the USA, Canada, EU, and the UK.
These countries have historically worked together to achieve their global dominance. It was no coincidence that they sung from the same songbook during the period of the disputed elections. Editor, what should be noted and acknowledged is that Granger is solely to blame for what happened including his removal from Government. During his tenure in office, David Granger cut himself off from the public, the man was too aloof, arrogant, and inimical to advise. He thus provided a fertile ground for the incubation of sinister plans for regime change. With the discovery of massive oil deposits vis-à-vis the geopolitics with Venezuela, a corrupt puppet regime in Guyana was ideal for the West. Although a USA-based politician, Senator Roxanne Persaud is of Guyanese descent and she cares immensely about her country of descent. Unlike Vishnu Bisram who sees things only in the prisms of race, the senator knows the implications of regime change on a country. She knows and has seen what the USA spearheaded regime change has caused on countries such as Iraq, Libya, Haiti, Honduras to mention just a few. The senator does not see Guyana in the prisms of race rather as a nation of six races which, if all races worked together, they can all benefit from her immense resources.
Editor, I have never bought the idea of organizations such as OAS, Commonwealth, and CARICOM being agents of democracy. First of all, just as the Commonwealth exists to advance and protect the interests of the UK, OAS exists to advance and protect the interests of the USA. Columnist, Laura Carlsen, who also heads the Center for International Policy’s Americas Project noted in an article published by the CounterPunch Newsletter of January 2019 that, “throughout his tenure, Almagro has acted against many of the basic principles and mandates of the organization and consistently represented U.S. interests above those of its neighbors, generally supporting allies and punishing adversaries of the U.S. government”.
It is public knowledge that Almagro, the head of OAS, was a lackey of Donald Trump. We should also not forget that among the organizations that Mercury promised the PPP to lobby on thier behalf was OAS. CARICOM is no saint and should in no way be “thanked” for democracy in Guyana. editor, Granger is a historian who, like the French Bourbons learned nothing from history.
Addressing a rally shortly after the US invasion of Grenada, visionary and ahead of his time as he undoubtedly was, President Forbes Burnham told the gathering: “We must be on guard,” he said. “Do you think that these same fellows, if we continue in CARICOM, are not going to say they perceive a threat to their integrity coming from Guyana?” thirty-seven years later, to justify her efforts at supporting regime change in Guyana, the then Chairman of CARICOM, Mia Motley, and her predecessor, Ralph Gonsalves found an excuse in “preserving democracy” in Guyana and how a threat to democracy in Guyana was a threat to the entire CARICOM. Granger should have known better.
Following the 1997 disputed elections, CARICOM was called in to solve the impasse. Like the 2020 CARICOM recount observers, that CARICOM audit team, gave the elections a thumbs up. Three years later, those elections would be nullified. What Granger, the historian forgot in 2020 is that CARICOM has always taken the position of their neocolonial masters, the USA and her enforcing arm, the OAS. It is no mistake that in the same rally of November 1983, President Burnham observed, “the former colonies now seek to introduce colonialism and imperialism into our region” by aiding the west to install a puppet regime in Guyana, CARICOM did exactly that: they reintroduced colonialism in the region. The recent Taiwan saga is enough evidence. Taiwan’s establishment of an office in Guyana was first announced by the US ambassador, signifying who the real our country’s foreign policy are.
Therefore, CARICOM and OAS which Vishnu Bisram seem to bank his arguments on have no moral authority to lecture anyone on democracy. Haiti is a member of both CARICOM and OAS. As of today, that country’s elections are overdue for over 2 years. We have heard no word of condemnation from the so-called advocates of democracy in the region.
Is it because Haiti has no oil and doesn’t border Venezuela? In Honduras, Juan Orlando Hernández Alvarado, another USA puppet in the region is in office based on a fraudulent electoral process. The OAS under Almagro has not uttered any word demanding democracy in that Spanish-speaking nation. In Bolivia, the OAS, under the stewardship of Almagro spearheaded regime change in the country. The people revolted in the recently concluded elections by voting for the candidate of the ousted Evo Morales. Guyanese will do the same when elections under a new voters list are called.
The OAS and CARICOM are, therefore, bodies filled with self-seekers. Two countries in Africa, Kenya, and Zimbabwe experienced electoral disputes similar to Guyana. African Union solved those differences by bringing together the two contesting parties. Given the prolonged ethnic divisions which have plagued our nation for so long, one would have logically expected CARICOM to adopt a similar route. Individual CARICOM leaders put their interests ahead of regional interests.
Democracy will be restored in Guyana by Guyanese themselves, not external exploiters who disguise themselves as advocates of democracy.
Faithfully
Tom Linden
