Dear Editor,
AS the world pivots on a pandemic that has befuddled sophisticated medical communities worldwide, rendered governments including the US, the UK, Canada, and the fractured European Union woefully underprepared, and ground much of the world to a halt, Guyana’s health is further compromised not by its government response to the Coronavirus but by a seemingly malignant flaw in its race-based DNA. And in a morbid juxtaposition, while the world count their dead from the lethal virus, Guyana is poised to yet recount the votes cast in a free and fair election held in the South American republic almost a month ago.

Curiously though as the aforementioned nations struggle to get some semblance of control of the deadly Covid 19 virus which has impacted even personnel of the US Congress and Senate, as well as the British royal family and its Prime Minister, while playing havoc with their economies, it has not proven to be enough of a diversion as to prevent their home governments from focusing on the unresolved electoral machinations of this tiny newly oil-rich nation. Clearly in the lingo of nowadays occasioned by the coronavirus of -‘social distancing’ does not apply to their political contact, indeed interference in the affairs of this sovereign nation. Leading the charge for the United States is Asst. Secretary of State at the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Michael Kozak, who in a show of imperial arrogance summoned Guyana Ambassador to Washington Riyad Insanally to the State Department to warn against what in their view would be illegal installation of a government in Guyana, should they not accept GECOM’s official tally.

Meanwhile speaking for Canada, Asst. Deputy Minister of Americas at Global Affairs Michael Grant placing another thumb on the scale of justice, firmly stated that “We’re monitoring closely the legal proceedings related to Guyana’s elections. We believe a recount of ballots is necessary to ensure every vote is counted.” Not surprisingly providing the underpinning for the opposition conspiracy theory PPP leader Bharat Jagdeo firmly stated that “court ruling or no court ruling the results are fraudulent”.

For good measure, Stabroek News, bereft of any semblance of balance in their coverage of the electoral process and all issues political, in a recent editorial stated, ‘there is clearly a conspiracy at GECOM to hand the election to the incumbent APNU/AFC without an accurate count of the largest voting district – Demerara/Mahaica – region 4.”

Growing up in Guyana my father, Cleveland Wycliffe Hamilton, in arbitrating disputes among his children would often suggest that ‘every story has 3 sides – my side, your side, and the truth’. In the case now pending on the basis of my Dad’s theory, GECOM holds the true story of Region 4, as well as the rest of the country.
As we await the final decision fully one month after the election another of my late father’s theory on the pace of progress in Guyana as he chronicled the life and times of his beloved homeland with humor and ardent wit wrote that ‘Guyana has 3 speeds – Slow, dead slow, and turnback.’

As our beloved nation takes its next deliberate step, the hope is that it does not take its marching orders from those who seek to ignore the nation’s sovereignty and the constitution, bearing in mind that Guyana is merely a Republic …not a banana republic. And shame on those including eminent jurists, inveterate diplomats, military mavens, and others who suggest that Guyana, a nation of laws, is teetering on the brink of failed statehood.

Regards,
Cosmo Hamilton