THANKS for your brief tribute to Senator Ted Kennedy in Thursday’s paper. He is deserving of it. It is wonderfully written and aptly described the Senator’s magnanimous work vis-à-vis Guyana.

I think Kennedy’s press release condemning fraudulent elections in Guyana paved the way for the restoration of democracy in our homeland.  He was an influential figure and American legislators look to him for leadership and guidance.  When he acted, others followed course.

For three decades, successive American governments ignored human rights abuses in Guyana because American legislators refused to heed our calls. Through sustained and intense lobbying of Kennedy and others, together with the end of the cold war, Teddy was moved to intervene in Guyana.  Several individuals, like Hassan Rahaman, Veka Lalji, Baytoram Ramharack, Ravi Dev, Vassan Ramracha, Ramesh Kalicharran, Pandit Ramlall, Arjune Karshan, and Vishnu Bisram, lobbied Kennedy to take up human rights abuses in Guyana.  Dev and Bisram lobbied GOPIO at the 1989 convention to use its influence with Kennedy to issue a statement calling for free and fair elections in Guyana. Dr. Jagan also made an appeal when Kennedy addressed the gathering at the Sheraton Convention Center in Manhattan.

The late Chairman of the Democratic Party, Ron Brown, was also lobbied by Dev and myself through GOPIO to get members of Congress to take up the Guyana matter. Kennedy rightly said the US had unfinished business in Guyana because his brother, President JFK, unjustly toppled Jagan from office and installed the Burnham dictatorship.  Kennedy called on President Bush (the father) to put pressure on Desmond Hoyte to return the country to democratic governance. This led to statements from the NDI, Carter Center, and State Departments that Guyana must have free and fair elections. And we all now know the rest — the Carter visits and the country’s first relatively democratic elections.

Ted Kennedy’s legacy will live on in many countries because he has helped to bring democracy in dozens of them.  He gave voice and hope to those (like Guyanese during the authoritarian era) who needed it in oppressive countries.
VISHNU BISRAM