For the first time in independent Guyana the elections have attracted so much global attention. There were contentious elections during the Forbes Burnham rule and during the Bharrat Jagdeo era. But I cannot recall such global interest.
Things have reached the stage where the United States has become so involved that it has introduced sanctions against Government leaders and their associates even before the most recent challenge to the elections is over.
To ascertain how premature the United States involvement is one only needs to listen to United States Ambassador Sarah-Ann Lynch at her recent press conference.
She said that there were two declarations that the United States considers credible, the last being based on the recount. However, the legitimacy of the recount is being challenged in court and could very well be nullified.
A question from Marcelle Thomas of Stabroek News provided an interesting answer. The United States has been calling on President David Granger to step down. In that country’s view Granger has lost the election to Irfaan Ali who then should be the President-elect.
Ms. Thomas asked, “Does the United States recognize Irfaan Ali as the President-elect?” Ambassador Lynch replied that the United States would wait for a declaration. Hasn’t the United States already identified the person to replace Granger?
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced visa restrictions. The extent of these restrictions are unknown. All I know at this time is that they will apply to people who help to subvert democracy in Guyana. And this is very subjective.
I have concluded that these people could be anyone who supports the government. So support for the coalition could attract a penalty. But even in the United States there is freedom of choice. People can be Republican, Democrat or Independent.
I do not believe that support for either is key to being penalized.
In Guyana there were people licking their chops at the concept of some people being refused entry into the United States. Minutes after Mike Pompeo’s announcement, Kaieteur News posted that Brian Tiwarie was one of those affected.
Someone in the office, responding to a query, said that the media entity checked and verified the information. But the United States embassy had said that the list of those affected is secret in keeping with US laws.
I know that Publisher of Kaieteur News, Glenn Lall, holds some animosity toward Brian Tiwarie. I do not know the source of this animosity but over time I have seen comments critical of Tiwarie. And to think that Lall and Tiwarie are first cousins.
Tiwarie’s bank account may be the source of the problem but for a newspaper and its radio station to vilify an individual is something that cannot be considered par for the course. And people have children and other family members. They too are affected by attacks.
This recent attack is similar to the attacks conducted by the People’s Progressive Party. On one occasion I asked Tiwarie about this hostility. He said that it may have stemmed from his parting ways with the PPP.
In the wake of the separation there were some ethnic comments that suggested that Tiwarie should not be associating with people who look different from him. And that is putting it nicely.
The attack continued that Tiwarie was funding the Coalition; that he was spending large sums of money on Joseph Harmon and that he was helping Harmon and heaven knows who else to set up empires.
Because of my association with Mr. Tiwarie I have also been placed in the firing line. On Friday, hours after the press conference by the United States ambassador, Mikhail Rodrigues, who is known as Guyanese Critic, called me to say that he understands that I have been affected by the visa restriction.
I informed him that I could not care less. I said to him that I migrated in 1994 only to return home a few weeks later. I told him that I surrendered my Green Card in 1996. I am not sure that he got the message. It calls for some brains.
The next day I featured in a satirical piece in Kaieteur News. I did find it humorous. But what I did not find humorous was the call by the same Kaieteur News to have visa restrictions imposed on reporters. That newspaper wants any reporter who writes articles favourable to the coalition to be sanctioned.
If that happens then it would be a curtailment of a reporter’s right to free expression.
Glenn Lall was my friend but I never knew that he could be so bitter. Many of his friends and some close relatives have had their visas revoked. He has a staff member who simply cannot uplift a visa from the US Embassy. I do not think that any of them will commit suicide or die from a broken heart. Therefore I cannot understand the gloating.
And he was in that same position at one time.
For many, travel to the United States is perhaps the next best thing to going to heaven. I remember the mad rush for people to go to that country. Some paid millions of dollars thus sustaining the backtrack industry.
I knew people who operated the backtrack racket.
Most who are in the United States left this country legally. My 96-year-old mother, three sisters, a brother, three children and a host of grandchildren, nieces and nephews, aunts, uncles and cousins are in North America, most of them in the United States.
Whenever I go there, apart from seeing my mother who certainly does not have too many years left, it is for rest, relaxation and an association with alcohol.
I spend money and return to Guyana poorer. If it is that I am not permitted to go there, then so be it. I will have a bit more to spend in Guyana.
Brian Tiwarie said to me that he traveled to that country on business, for his children’s graduation and the occasional recreation. He said that he spends a lot of money when he is there. He said that he always races back to Guyana because, as he puts it, he has his business to oversee.
Of interest is the fact that there was a time when none of Jagdeo’s ministers could travel to the United States. That was when he, Jagdeo, refused to accept the involuntary Guyanese migrants to Guyana. There are still some people in his fold who cannot even pass by the United States embassy.
If one should ask them about the impact, they would laugh in one’s face. Anyhow, it would be interesting if the High Court sides with the Chief Elections Officer, tomorrow. That would not impress the United States.
