Guyana no pagará por la Revolución Bolivariana fallida!

Sep 26, 2023 Letters

Dear Editor,

We need to get some things straight in this country, and we need to do so quickly, because nothing less than national sovereignty is at stake. Those like GHK Lall bent on exploiting the threats from Venezuela for domestic political reasons will eventually be consigned to oblivion. Lall needs to shake in a hammock all night and reflect on the damage he is doing to this country. Imagine in the face of a defined threat from a foreign adversary, GHK Lall has the audacity to ventilate nonsense like “[t]he guardians of our sovereignty are mainly one kind of people” (Demerara Waves, 9/24/2023).

GHK Lall is using the Venezuelan threat to Guyana’s national sovereignty to deepen whatever sources of political differences exist in this country. He is trying to fabricate a Maginot Line erected out of the raw materials of racial antagonism, trying his best to keep race alive. Yes, that is the mantra; keep race alive. Keep conflict alive. Keep division alive. Out of this bicameral mentality has emerged a Manichean world, a world cut up and compartmentalized in two, divided between the saved and the dammed. The man’s narrative runs something like this – the supporters of APNU and especially the PNC are not included in development, and therefore, we need to have the US deliver shared governance. He has the Hakeen Jeffries/Rickford Burke formulation ‘down pat’.

In language that could easily be mined by the foreign aggressor, in this case Venezuela, GHK Lall expresses doubt about the will to defend Guyana. In his own words – “I am uncertain as to the strength of spirit in those who have been marginalized and demonized now that there is this urgent call up to rally around the flag” (Ibid). And further “[w]hen people are made to feel like outcasts, when they are consigned to the corral of losers, then national unity becomes the toughest of hard sells (Ibid).

A true patriot would never, I repeat, never provoke disunity in a time of foreign aggression. The following is what might be said by someone who is not a self-aggrandizing tout. “I call on my brothers and sisters from across this land, to stand strong in the face of Venezuelan aggression. And Venezuela should know that the Essequibo is ours! ‘Awe own’! We shall not yield even a blade of grass. Guyana no pagará por la Revolución Bolivariana fallida!

That, that is what a truly patriotic Guyanese should say in the face of foreign aggression.

Sincerely,

Dr. Randolph Persaud

• Dr. Randolph Persaud, GHK Lall, political differences, sovereignty, Venezuela