OLD KAI’s feathers are a bit ruffled and in the worst way too, especially at this time of the year. One “sada roti with some balanjay choka” went flying through my window in disgust a few days ago, when I observed in the media that the US Ambassador to Guyana, Brent Hardt, made absolutely no apology or effort to disguise efforts to impose his country’s imperialist tendencies on this nation of Guyana once again.The US has a dangerous history of funding and assisting a certain political party in this country, a secret which was revealed with the declassification of CIA documents some time back. The destruction of this country; pitting our people against each other; undermining our fledgling democracy; the underdevelopment and violence which followed was all funded by the US Government and the PNC was used as their proxy to achieve their objectives in this country. So it is quite comical when the PNC and now APNU point their fingers at others and accuse them of discrimination and trying to divide our people, when they are the ones who were paid to do so and gladly followed through with this agenda. In fact, the declassified CIA documents points to the fact that the US Government was aware that the PNC, now APNU, under Forbes Burnham was preparing to rig elections shortly after Guyana became independent in 1966.
Media reports indicate that it was apparent that the United States government wanted Burnham to be re-elected and it began to give a positive view to the idea of providing his party with financial support despite his plans to utilise “unorthodox methods” to gain re-election. The 303 Committee, in a memorandum prepared on 17 March 1967, reported:  “Prime Minister Forbes Burnham, leader of the majority People’s National Congress (PNC) in the coalition,…has stated that he is fully prepared to utilize the electoral machinery at his disposal to ensure his own re-election. Burnham has initiated steps for electoral registration of Guyanese at home and abroad, and has requested financial assistance . . . . for the PNC campaign. It is recommended that he and his party be provided with covert support in order to assure his victory at the polls…”
So after supporting the efforts to undermine our democratic institutions and encouraging the rigging of elections, the United States has changed its tune and is now interested in strengthening our democracy in Guyana. Now we have no problem with that as since 1992, former US President Jimmy Carter and his organisation supported the restoration of free and fair elections.  What Old Kai has a problem with is our need to know the full details and what exactly is behind the latest US “Governance project” that is being promoted by the local US Ambassador.
Old Kai has detected something “fishy” about this project and based on our history as indicated above, you can understand my serious concerns when I heard that part of the agreement includes the “US Government financing local political parties”. Even more suspicious, is the US Ambassador talking about the need to provide greater transparency and accountability, but a local news site reported that Mr. Hardt was less than forthcoming about certain aspects of the project when questioned. This is a classic example of the US emissaries preaching one thing and then practising the exact opposite.
What I am more concerned about is the reasons behind the US ambassador being less than candid about the full details of the project. Are we seeing a repeat of the 60s all over again? But in all of this worry, I couldn’t help a chuckle when I read one of the dailies quoting the project document as stating that, “the U.S. government said the spread of stable democratic governments was in its long-term interest.” Serious? So why did they support the overthrow of democratically elected leaders in Haiti and more recently in Egypt among several other nations?
To make matters worse, the US embassy apparently released some communication with the Guyana Government in the hope that it was to have proved that our local position was inconsistent with the reality. However, this has backfired on the US authorities as when I read one of the correspondence, it basically informed the Guyana Government that the US Government was implementing a governance project and they were inviting a contribution or input from the ruling party. Clearly, this is not how one sovereign nation deals with another. The US cannot decide that it is implementing projects in Guyana and then goes ahead, only to inform the legitimate Government in a “by the way” fashion of what it intends to do. This nation is not its colony. Based on this, I understand and fully support Government’s decision to scrap the project as, despite this gross disrespect in protocol, it appears the Guyana Government was still willing to encourage the project, but when the US Government began to veer off the initial understanding of what the project entailed, it was time for our leaders to stand up to the US and let it be known as India recently did, that “times have changed.”
What happened next is almost unimaginable as after Head of the Presidential Secretariat, the indomitable Dr. Roger Luncheon expressed concern that despite Government scrapping the project, there was information that the US Embassy was continuing aspects of the project in Guyana, the US Ambassador in return, when questioned by the media, confirmed that this was true. Clearly, this is overstepping the boundary and is very disrespectful to our status as an independent and sovereign nation and people. Whatever is the next step that the Guyana Government will take, you can bet your bottom dollar that Old Kai will be in full support.