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The visit by the fact-finding mission out of Southern United States raised the proverbial hornet’s nest in the government. The attacks by the government and its supporters were unprecedented in the history of foreign fact-finding teams coming to Guyana. The team landed on November 13. It spent seven days.
But before it landed the government announced that it would not be meeting with the delegation. The reason offered was that the team was coming after being prepped by Guyanese social and political activist, US-based Rickford Burke. The government argued that Burke initiated the Washington Conference that attracted the political opposition. Of course, the government initially described the Washington Conference as a failure. Reality confronted the architects of the failure propaganda and the tone changed.
Press conferences by Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo suddenly shifted tone. He set about to criminalise Burke. It was this train of thought that continued when the government became aware of the visit by the fact-finding mission. One statement from the government firmly linked Burke to the fact-finding mission. On arriving in Guyana, team leader, Ms. Dee Dawkins-Haigler hosted a press conference at which she stated that she had never met Mr. Burke. She said that neither she nor her team members had ever associated one way or another, with Burke.
The mission came. On Saturday, President Irfaan Ali told a press conference that indeed he had communicated with the visiting mission. What he didn’t say was that he had extended a welcome to the mission. The team landed and according to President Ali, the members were picked up by Roysdale Forde. There was some confusion on my part because I pictured Forde driving a minibus to pick up these people. The President was either being disingenuous or was deliberately misleading the members of the press. Forde had gone to the airport in the wake of the government’s statement that it was disassociating itself from the visiting mission; that it would not meet with its members.
When I called him, Roysdale Forde laughed at the suggestion that he had gone to welcome the visiting mission. He explained that he knew how wicked the government could be so he left to ensure that on arrival the mission was not treated unfavourably. The government is known to react to people travelling overseas to expose the lie about One Guyana, Forde told me. The immigration Department detained Member of Parliament David Patterson only to let him travel one day later. This matter is the subject of a lawsuit filed by Patterson. So Forde said that he was at the airport to ensure that there were no immigration hassles. He said that the people came out of the airport and went about their business. They had already arranged their accommodation.
But that is only a part of the story. An earlier mission headed by Ms. Dee Dawkins-Haigler had come to Guyana in 2021. On that occasion the delegation met with President Irfaan Ali and his entire Cabinet. This issue would be discussed a bit later. So President Ali told the press conference on Saturday that the mission had a political objective. But having said that, he then spoke about a social media post created by someone known to his party. That post claimed that the mission had come to campaign for Forde as leader of the People’s Nation Congress Reform.
It was confusion worst confounded. President Ali claimed that the mission set about meeting select groups. He did not say that the meetings were open sessions at which anyone could present his or her case. He did not say that the mission also asked that the presenters to offer documented evidence. Roysdale Forde said that President Ali is a very disturbed person. He is disturbed that the cover would be blown off his One Guyana fiasco; that his race-based award of contracts would be exposed; that the discriminatory actions of the government would be exposed.
At the press conference President Ali then decided that the mission should investigate the roads that his government has built in Buxton and in parts of Georgetown. He said that the mission should investigate the termination of the community workers who were all PPP political appointees sharing out pension books in the Rupununi; and the termination of the services of the thousands of sugar workers. He did not ask that the numerous people terminated by the PPP be investigated. And that is another issue.
The government keeps talking about 7,000 sugar workers being terminated when in reality, the number was just over 4,000. These were people who were attached to the closed estates and who were offered alternative employment. The fact that President Ali suggested areas of investigation left me to wonder why didn’t he make those suggestions to the visitors as far back as 2021 when the team came and met with him and his Cabinet?
He wanted an investigation into every possible thing in Guyana except what his government is doing. Things reached the stage where the PPP opted to get people to disrupt the gathering in Linden. But even before this, the government refused to provide security for the visitors. And the organisers of the Linden Town Hall meeting failed to get even a single police rank. There are chants of bias even before the people have written a line of their report.
President Ali said that the mission was partisan even though anyone could have made a presentation to the mission. As Roysdale Forde said, the government’s knee jerk reaction to the mission is one rooted in fear of international exposure. I am sorry that the mission never visited NCERD. I am sorry that the mission never asked to see the promotions among the senior ranks of the Guyana Police Force or the placement of officers in certain managerial positions.
The reports would be presented to the State Department, to the United Nations and to other agencies. Copies would be sent to the government. But look out for long-winded responses that neglect crucial issues. Just for the records, IDPADA-G presented a 47-page report to the United Nations. The government responded with a 110-page document.
