AN attempt to compare the ruling party’s disposition, relative to foreign involvement in domestic affairs, prior to 1992 and currently was rubbished by the Party’s General Secretary, Clement Rohee.Speaking, yesterday, during the People’s Progressive Party’s (PPP) weekly press conference, he said, “I don’t think that prior to 1992 it was meddling. If it was meddling, it was justified meddling.”
Rohee made it clear that the state of affairs in Guyana prior to 1992 was one that is much different from the status quo.
“In those days you had an undemocratic regime that held on to political power by rigged elections and, therefore, regime change, even though the phrase was not coined in those days, was applicable,” he said
The PPP General Secretary’s comments follow several tense incidents between with members of Guyana’s own diplomatic corps and the current Administration.
The most recent such occurrence saw British High Commissioner, Mr. Andrew Ayre, commenting on Guyana’s political status quo at a news conference, where he made statements that drew the ire of the Government.
These areas of tensions were what was matched against the PPP’s engagement of the United States of America’s Carter Centre, which, according to the party, assisted in the return to democracy.
Rohee made it clear that what is applicable in one situation is not always applicable in another.
“Having lobbied US Congressmen and Senators and having a US Embassy here, they were sympathetic on the need for change,” he said, stressing that the operative word was ‘need’, given the prevailing state of affairs at the time.
Rohee added that, “(If you take the opposition line) that this country has sunk to the lowest level, obviously you would agree that there is cause to meddle for change, but that is not so when you look at Guyana today.
This fact, he underscored, was recognised only last Friday by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)Community Council of Ministers, which held its 35th meeting at the CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana.
The Council of Ministers, in a statement, called for resident members of the diplomatic corps in Guyana, as well as in other CARICOM Member States, to adhere to diplomatic proprieties and stressed the need for members of the diplomatic corps to ensure that there is non- interference in the domestic affairs of Member States.
The PPP General Secretary concluded that Guyana is a sovereign country, where the principles of democracy are upheld, and there is no contradiction in the ruling party’s positions, relative to ‘interference’ from the diplomatic corps.