We’d like Madame Ambassador to know that our issue is hardly with the oath she swore to and though she frames her letter ‘Why We Champion Democray’ in the context of her US constitution and highlights that 11 of its 27 Amendments address voting rights, electoral issues or matters of succession by representatives, we’ll submit and steadfastly, that her interpretation of those guidelines may not have been blanketedly applied to the shores of Guyana and cite as evidence the meetings that she was a part of with Guyana’s Opposition and its Lobbyist Mercury Public Affairs LLC.
We’re glad that she’s aware that “politically charged” aptly describes Guyana’s environment and we contend that her supposition of us substituting “practicing good diplomacy” with “foreign interference” is not at all a subtle suggestion that the meanings of these diametrically opposite phrases escape us.
They don’t, we’ll say to Madame Ambassador and we will submit that the“good” in her good diplomacy is obviously subjective.
For, good diplomacy would have been that of separating the job of representing US policy that Guyana supports, from engaging its Elections as an Impartial Observer; after spending the better part of the pre- Observing year meeting with the hirees of the incumbent’s Opposition to strategize their victory…we suspect.
Conflating Maduro and Venezuela’s upheaval, while citing the OAS Charter’s Article 21 might be a stab at intimidation, we’re thinking, for we have never disputed “Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.”
It was the absence of that which produced regime change in 2015 after a twenty three year run, rife with socio economic and socio political atrocities, smeared with political corruption and overall malfeasance, that is well documented by US Agencies that intervened on several fronts, during this tumultuous period.
It is precisely this, for which we went to the polls on March 2nd 2020 and did so not knowing that the Opposition had engaged your Government and a battery of its lawmakers through Mercury Public Affairs LLC, an organization of doubtful repute and on whose record of meetings and calls and emails the Madame Ambassador is mentioned in numbers that shift our discomfort to suspicion.
Suspicion of what, is the question?
Well, suspicion of a partiality that seems incongruent with the good- faith unprejudiced observation we anticipate from our invited international observers. Of course, you were merely watching the process of polling and we noted throughout the day that you were complimentary of said process.
It’s the organized chaos and hyperescalation of disruption that followed polling; the protracted brawling and burning and the extended mayhem that ensued, that made us aware that this was designed to portray the incumbent as lacking control, of heading a rogue operation and to send a cunningly crafted message to the international community that a government under him would be unpopular, had ascended through rigging and fraudulent practices and was, therefore, unfit to take a seat at the international table.
Then came the chorus of calls for fairness and democracy and will of the people by the Ambassadors and the standard stock phrases used to brand governments that would be deemed unfit, following these overt acts of electoral turmoil and the clarion calls for democracy from the International Community , all of whom sit around the Organization of American States, OAS table.
It was no coincidence, we thought, that the presence of Mercury Public Affairs LLC came with that post- poll plight.
A look at their justification for their existence, their business model and the expressed ideologies of those on the ledgers , recording meetings with US Ambassador and Guyana’s Opposition Leader are undisguised pledges of hardlined right wing political ideology.
And with Luis Almagro ,the once hard- left Pink Tider, defender of the Chavez/ Bin Laden order, having had political epiphany upon his Damascus encounter with Dan Restrepo, whose close affiliation with the financial giants of the world may have shown Louis light, the OAS is now an organization that operates not unlike bounty hunters.
We say this as we recall Almagaro’s friend in Pink Tide, Evo Morales whom he exiled from his homeland of Bolivia in the name of OAS principles, an act that, in part, secured his reelection in 2015 and a feat he may want to repeat to solidify his re-run in 2020, as he mulls Maduro and his oil and the billions of barrels across the way from that.
And Luis, like you, Ambassador Lynch, appears through his subordinate Gustavo Arnat on the Mercury Ledger that details its service to the Opposition Leader of Guyana, references that cite you and several of your country’s right wing lawmakers working with Bharrat Jagdeo in support of his Party’s candidacy.
It’s not that Madame Ambassador doth protest too much but its that she doth protest at all.
Contrary to what may have shaped opinion or perception we, Guyanese, are not at all without political savvy.
Indeed, we are still evolving in this arena and lack the cunning and connivance that many seem naturally predisposed to by some and which some leaders seem enamored by.
But ours is a naivete we will wear proudly because we value character, find decency more becoming and know that these virtues could only propel our Motto of One People, One Nation and One Destiny and embrace the six peoples that weave the fabric of our society, as we use our patrimony to improve the lives of ALL of our citizens and the productivity of our nation.
And , to address your point, we haven’t criticized the US Govt. for speaking out.
We’ve criticized it for talking down.
We are as sovereign as you are and the noisy democracy that you analogize, we do not subscribe to, at all. For us democracy is just that – no bells or frills and its decibels are consistent and nondiscriminatory.
We see no cacophony at all but a country that somehow assumes that it is a qualified overseer, yet struggles with its own electoral misgivings and leader that falls short on everything you cite as a requirement.
Neither your values nor your vision of your democracy is different to what we want for ourselves, what we’re entitled to; which makes your assertions that our will, our democracy and our rights have been trampled upon revoltingly presumptuous…especially since your opinion seems skewed in favor of Mercury’s client and not for all Guyanese.
And I’ll close with a secret of my own.
We have been colonized for centuries and remain suspended in that post traumatic disorder that is consistent with countries that are emerging from that mental space. It may not make us a super power or world leader but it does not take away our desire to lead ourselves and participate in the world community at a level higher than subject.
We, better than you, know what our politics are, having lived it and continue to strive to improve it.
The last thing we need is a country telling us who our leader should be; especially when we know what could, potentially, be our fate if we are force- fed the one that hired Mercury, whose meetings you attended.
And noting your close, the hint of shared commitment to supporting improved governance, those are your rose-colored views Madame Ambassador, not ours and we will insist, like you do in your home, on having the Government of our choice and will not accept what any country may suggest is best for our democracy.
We are a sovereign people, expect to be treated as such and will, in turn, participate like the adults we are.
We look forward to continuing our relationship with you through the Leader of our choice.
