Guyana cannot sustain itself, isolated from the rest of the world

Dear Editor,

The political crisis in Guyana stemmed from the successful passage of the No Confidence Motion (NCM) against the Government in December 2018, wherein a national election should have been held within three months therefrom as stipulated by the Guyana Constitution. This did not happen until more than a year after and we are now four months and counting after the elections was held on March 2, 2020, with no declaration of the result.

The political crisis, compounded by the global pandemic of COVID-19 have imposed severe adverse economic consequences on Guyana, as business and commercial activities are significantly down by over 70 percent in the productive sectors and unemployment rates are climbing with no proper relief efforts on the part of the Government. In fact, a national task force was set up but it has hardly delivered on its mandate to deal with the pandemic.
It is in view of these that, going forward, Guyana needs to swiftly conclude the elections and declare the result originating from the National Recount which would lead to the installation of a Government that has been democratically elected and recognized by the region and the international community as a legitimate government.

While many have advocated that more needs to be done to see some sort of action on the part of the international community and the U.S in particular to force the ruling Administration to concede defeat and allow for a peaceful transition of power, the U.S or no one can activate any form of serious action until an official declaration of the result is made by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and the swearing in of a President. When this is done and if the incumbent refuses to demit office and concede to the elections, then other actions can then be explored. I am sure these will be taken into serious consideration by the international players and more so the United Nations.

This is especially the case since what we need to be cognizant about is that this is not only about Guyana’s domestic politics, but there are global politics and geopolitics at play as well. That is to say, Guyana and this region, Latin America and the Caribbean and South America are geopolitically important for the Global powers and cannot or would not allow a single small fragile state like Guyana to destabilize an entire region.

I am of the firm conviction that Guyana would not go down that road and there will be appropriate intervention by international authorities in such circumstances. Guyana is one of the easiest countries to avert any political player with intention to transition into any form of illegal dictatorial regime simply because we have one of the weakest militaries in the world and Guyana cannot sustain itself if isolated from the rest of the world. Guyana is simply not Venezuela in this case.

Yours truly,
JC Bhagwandin