FORMER Foreign Affairs Minister Carl Greenidge has renounced his British citizenship.
Greenidge, who serves as Foreign Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, noted in a statement on Saturday that the British authorities have confirmed that his application to have his citizenship renounced has been accepted.

Having completed that process, he said that he has informed President David Granger of the development, and according to the former minister, he looks forward to being included on the list of candidates from which the governing APNU+AFC will make its selection of Members of Parliament (MPs) at the Regional and General Elections in 2020.
“UK citizenship and residence enabled me to take advantage, largely free of cost to my parents, of wide-ranging educational opportunities which I would not have been in a position to access or finance had I remained in Guyana,” he said.

As he explained the benefits of his British citizenship, Greenidge said that he was subsequently able to gain invaluable employment and vocational experience in the employ of UK Government agencies before returning to Guyana to serve.” I am grateful to have had that privilege, and through it to have attained the goals to which my relatives and many Guyanese aspire,” he said.

He has served at the highest levels professionally, at the University, and in the Public Sector as Chief Planning Officer and Secretary to the State Planning Board, before being invited to enter Parliament. “Having given up a promising academic career for politics, my record as a Minister and as a successful negotiator, in particular for Guyana and developing states, is rivalled by very few other Guyanese. I stand ready to continue that contribution,” he added.

Greenidge was one of several government ministers whose seat in the governing benches in the National Assembly were affected by last December’s No-Confidence Motion and accompanying legal processes. Former Minister of Business Dominic Gaskin, and Former Minister of State Joseph Harmon were the other two ministers who held dual citizenship, and as such resigned from their ministerial posts following the legal processes which were ventilated in the courts after the motion was passed.
On Saturday, Greendge said the two main political parties –the governing APNU+AFC and the Opposition Peoples Progressive Party- had sought, by an amendment to the country’s Constitution, a provision which the Courts found inadequate if the intention was to prevent crossing of the floor by an MP.

As observed by the learned members of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), the Westminster Constitution from which Guyana’s is derived, permits MPs to cast a vote against the Party via which they gained membership of the National Assembly, he explained.

“They put great store by that fact. Whilst we must accept their interpretation of the legislation, an M.P, who, having declared his opposition to a motion immediately before it is debated, nonetheless proceeds to vote in favour of it, is someone without integrity. Lack of integrity is not an affliction restricted to dual citizens,” he added. Former AFC M.P. Charrandass Persaud voted against the government, resulting in the passage of the Motion.
Said Greenidge, “It is obvious, therefore, that this is still a hazard waiting to happen again. People betray commitments and principle for reasons other than nationality, and in the case at hand, the M.P neither acted as he did, nor got away with this act because he was a Canadian. Some people betray their colleagues or countries for love, and even more do so for love of money! Of course, Shakespeare would remind us of ambition.”

Greenidge said that the “threat” will remain as long as there are anomalies in the Constitution. According to Greenidge, the CCJ members, as well as learned Counsels, highlighted some, including more stringent citizenship requirements for an M.P than for a Chief Justice or President, and most importantly that the provision collides with fundamental rights provisions.

Nevertheless, he said that the public’s attention has been diverted to nationality -without reference to the significance of its various forms- rather than to remedying these anomalies, or to the equally critical issue of ensuring the integrity of members of the National Assembly.

He said that, looking ahead, he hopes, with the assistance of the new Parliament, “to focus on some of these fundamental challenges facing the nation, rather than on simplistic panaceas.”