Cuffy was not a dual citizen

Dear Editor,

I wish to respond to the piece titled “Cuffy was a dual citizen” written by Peeping Tom and published in your newspaper on Thursday, October 29, 2020. Whereas I agree with Peeping Tom’s overall position on dual citizenship as it pertains to Guyana, I am at variance with him on two main points.

First, in championing the cause for allowing dual citizens to hold Ministerial positions and to sit in the National Assembly, he refers to Cuffy as an example of a dual citizen. Cuffy is not a good example of a dual citizen, since he came to Guyana as a slave. Cuffy’s migration to Guyana was forced migration. The dual citizenship under question essentially refers to natural-born Guyanese citizens who have left Guyana voluntarily, have obtained citizenship status in other countries, and have returned to Guyana and seek to become Ministers of Government or Members of the National Assembly.

Also included are descendants of natural-born Guyanese who were born outside of Guyana but have Guyanese citizenship. And, although many have left Guyana as refugees during the Burnham reign (not exactly voluntarily, somewhat like Cuffy left Ghana), many of them, along with their offspring, have since re-migrated to Guyana – voluntarily, and are doing well. I am sure that Cuffy wanted to return to Ghana, however, he couldn’t. Cuffy, therefore, in this instance was…just Guyanese.

Second, the fewer than half of Guyana’s population that rejected the alien (Janet Jagan) as President did so on account of her being a natural-born American. Although it is not a position that I hold, it’s quite understandable why even a handful of Guyanese would object to a foreign-born Guyanese holding the office of the President, the country’s highest office. Peeping Tom, consider this: the same country many Guyanese are praising for having intervened to settle Guyana’s recent election kerfuffle and to ensure that the rightful government is in power, has in its own constitution that its President must be a natural-born citizen of that country. And nobody dares to challenge that.

Yours in truth