US is not meddling in our affairs as diversion to race protests in America

Dear Editor,
Reference is made to a letter by Mr Eusi Kwayana, “In the tissues of every general election here are the fibres of communal struggle (SN 7/21),” in which he says: “Many may wonder at the USA’s high activism in our affairs in the face of a global pandemic of the present scale. However, it is of some relief to some sectors in the US empire, to find diversion in the affairs of a mini-state when faced at home with a unique uprising of a multi-racial nature in resentment of present-day lynching. The US State Department is not part of this uprising.”

He noted his appreciation for the invention of Caribbean officials but cautioned that “what in many Caribbean countries is simply an election among citizens, in Guyana includes other complexities. Here in Guyana, in the tissues of every general election are the fibres of communal struggle resulting from conscious designs of the colonial occupation.”
I respectfully disagree with the idea that the US is meddling in our elections as some kind of “diversion” to race-related protests here in America. Guyana, to my knowledge, is not a current election talking point. There is no news from the Eastern US including Washington, or Middle America, suggesting this. If this is different in the Pacific states—then it would be big news for us. To date, Trump supporters, arguably, have no care about Guyana.

Foreign intervention in elections like colonial remnants in our society is no novel idea. Politicians know this—with each profiting from or objecting to as they saw fit. It is instructive today that PNC figure, Hamilton Green, now an elections expert, embraces Queen Victoria in our High Court compound but has led the objections against The Carter Center (which contributed significantly to our democratic tradition here).

In 2020 we again showed that Guyana is incapable of hosting free and fair elections—a basic requirement of a republic, without some level of violence, intimidation, or vote theft. We have had ample time since 1966 to learn how to cast and count ballots. Yet, we fail.

While Guyana has complexities in its electoral process, what continues to transpire currently is hardly due to past colonial designs or imperial occupation. If there is any occupation today, it is a PNC occupation. This may have less to do with colonial constructs and more to do with one party’s blunt refusal to subscribe to democratic tendencies—or a republican form of Government.
Arguably, Frantz Fanon may have been baffled with the extent to which our native generals have replaced their colonial masters, whether on horseback in military fatigue in the past, or travelling with a little armada for security detail in the present.

He may have confirmed that some local generals never wear masks. They have mastered the art of mischief with such precision that they make us see masks where none exist. For example, one of the “popular” leaders Mr Kwayana mentioned never intended, arguably, to comply with any recount agreement. No mask here. People saw what they wanted to see.

As a result, Guyana is facing another PNC occupation—and perhaps this is where a mask metaphor is relevant, because references of “colonial occupation” and foreign interference seems to amount to a collective ploy to justify this treacherous journey to PNC occupation, and the underbelly of a PNC Empire in the making.
Many years ago, when the Klu Klux Klan descended upon New York City in their terrifying white robes, I found myself before City Hall in downtown Manhattan to voice my protest because it was the right thing to do as a Caribbean citizen. It was not “interference” in what has been an ancient dispute in the US.

It is very unfortunate that at least one US politician with Caribbean heritage, along with PNC friends from Brooklyn, now see it fit to use race to gin up support in Washington to get the US to pardon PNC generals for ballot lynching in Guyana. These very persons also claim to protest Police brutality that is rooted in an old race problem in America.
If PNC supporters can drain oil from an ocean by pouring more oil into it, then more power to them. But long before 2020, I wrote an editorial in 2006 about Guyana’s elections for a website. Still available online, it was titled “An American Election.” Some will recall that in that eventful year, Mr Roger Khan, a native-born citizen was unlawfully removed from Guyana and airlifted to a foreign jurisdiction.

Many who now speak of “sovereignty” and foreign interference never said a word of protest then. Indeed, something worse occurred which was explained recently by PNC Executive Gary Best in October 2019 at a PNC conference. That is, our security forces helped in the unlawful expulsion of the native Khan.
No imperial occupancy was needed. That was not even the result of any old colonial scab that began to fester.

Sincerely,
Rakesh Rampertab