Dear Editor,
DEMOCRACY is generally understood to be the embodiment of justice for all citizens, equal opportunity and a fair say through their representatives in the affairs of their daily lives.

In addition, as stated in the creed of a great nation, that we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. And that nation-states within the comity of nations deserve equal respect and regard irrespective of size and location.

Today, General Elections are considered the apex event in a democracy. But that, certainly important as it is, could not be the whole story. Unhappily for generations, and unto this day, the word democracy has been bandied about and used conveniently by powerful states whether it be in the east, west, north or south, Asia, Africa, the Americas and Europe. In Guyana today, we hear the clarion call for our leader of the coalition to step aside in the name of democracy. This call has resonated from several quarters
The time has come for Guyanese to be reminded that the use of the word democracy is no more than a convenient term really to satisfy the ambition and objectives of the powerful who wish to continue a certain dominance, which has characterized modern history since the fall of the Roman Empire.
For me, laws and constitutions in our democracy ought to be directly related to morality and the expected behavior by those who lead and those who are led. Many of these principles are set out in our Holy Books. The idea, in every case, being that we should enjoy a certain level of freedom constrained by a sense of responsibility and the pursuit for the well-being of all and sundry accepting that we are all children of the one God.
In our real world, however, we must neither be frightened nor fooled by those who now seek to lecture to us on democracy. We ought not to be lectured to by those whose motives are no more than to satisfy economic and strategic considerations.
The truth is, all powerful nations tend to behave and do things that do not really fit squarely into the mold what we understand to be democracy. I refer to two States, only because historically, they are the closest and best known to Guyanese. First, our erstwhile masters, the British, and second, the dominant state in this hemisphere, the USA.

King George III of the United Kingdom ignored the concerns of the American colonies and sought to treat them as unequals, unilaterally imposing laws and sanctions, which the Americans felt were unjust. This of course led to the December 1763 Boston Tea Party.
After America declared its independence in 1776, the British still not accepting the principles of freedom and justice, continued the practice, by the British Royal Navy, the policy of impressment. This led to the 1810 Anglo-American war.

Forgetting the treatment by the British, the Americans, now becoming powerful, turned their attention to the Pacific. This allowed for the removal of Queen Liliuokalani, Monarch of Hawaii, and the dismemberment of centuries old Hawaii Monarchy.

The Queen only wanted to establish the independence and rights of her people.
In 1895, Queen Liliuokalani, to win pardons for her supporters who had been jailed following the revolt, agreed to sign a formal abdication. As Head of the Onipa’a – (meaning immovable, steadfast movement), whose motto was Hawaii for Hawaiians, she fought bitterly against annexation of the islands by the US.
But Hawaii was a next and is now just another State of the USA. Shortly after, President Theodore Roosevelt dispatched the Great White Fleet of sixteen warships and as many destroyers, it was not about democracy; it was to tell the rest of the world that they were now a naval power and that no one should (mess) around with them.
A transfusion of democracy. It was not about democracy, it was not about civil liberty, it is about economic and strategic concerns. For even while the literature of the period talked about democracy, enslavement about black Africans continue unabated.

Democracy? Absolute rubbish. It was about economics and power. Robert Blackburn, in his book– The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery (1776-1848), reminded us that the slave trade brought “fabulous fortunes” to the Europeans and Americans. My friends, that is the real story, economics and strategic concerns. That the first eleven Presidents of the USA not only had no problem with slavery, but they themselves kept and owned slaves.

In fact, these early slave-owning Presidents were described as Democratic Republicans, and remember that it was in the 1960s that the Civil Rights Movement sought to translate this word “democracy” into something Afro-Americans could relate to and benefit from.

For that reason, one may ask what is the real reason for this unrelenting verbal assault on the Granger administration when the process of Elections 2020 is ongoing.
This process has been tedious and stressful to all of us, but speaking from my side of the divide, the effort, in spite of obvious mis-steps and strange judgements by certain folks within the judiciary, we continue the struggle to ensure that obvious fraud is not allowed to prevail.
What is the economic and strategic story?

What remains troubling is that all of our friends who are subtly and not so subtly seeking for the incumbent coalition to step aside have not analyzed the root cause of our elections and political impasse.

First, it began with a modern day Judas, and no matter what one may say about individual human rights, a person who turns against his own is a “Judas” and not unusual in human history.

Jesus of Nazareth had twelve disciples; one denied him, one doubted him and one betrayed him.
The second problem was a nonsensical argument, by a high judicial officer, that we could not remove names of persons from the voter’s list.
This meant we went into 2020 Elections with an inflated voters’ list.
This folly opened doors of opportunities for skullduggery and electoral fraud and one wonder why we are saddled with this false reasoning by those who occupy positions of trust in the judiciary.

Simple logics: if you can’t remove names from the list, the logic means keep on the list the dead and those not qualified to be on that list.
The time has come for Guyanese to rise above the present professionally guided and well-funded propaganda blitz.
We must accept that it is decency and morality that has been placed on the executional scuffle. Guyanese must be patient and continue the struggle until the righteous are allowed to continue managing the affairs of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana.
Having said that, when the dust settle, as it must, I again make a case, as I did three decades ago, (a) for a moral and spiritual revival and (b) the working out of some form of a National Front Government. For, so long as this Nation remains divided we will be the victims of those whose interest has nothing to do with democracy nor decency but with their economic and strategic interest.

Regards
Hamilton Green