Dear Editor,
I am proud of my country; for me there is no country in the world that I would rather belong to. This week, HE President Irfaan Ali swore in 10 new puisne judges, eight of whom are female judges.
Not so long ago, Janet Jagan, Guyana’s first female President, appointed Desiree Bernard as Guyana’s first female chancellor and she became the first female judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). The naysayers tried to “diss” the appointment by deeming it a wholly racist appointment, dominated by Guyanese of East Indian origin.

Those few who jumped on that bandwagon were selling a totally fake story since there were five persons of East Indian and five persons of African origins. The swearing in was another example of Guyana ensuring equal rights of women, further shattering the glass-ceiling. This column extend my congratulations to all the new judges and wish them well in their service to our beautiful country.
Speaking of service to our country, this week, I start a new journey. I am curtailing work I have been doing since August 2020 at the Ministry of Health, although I am not totally disconnecting. I will still be available to support the MOH and the health workers in any way that I could. But I am not ending service to our country and our people.

I have answered the call of our government to serve as Guyana’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Geneva and to multiple multilateral organisations in Switzerland and several other countries. I will also serve as Ambassador to Switzerland and to other European countries.
I am grateful to President Irfaan Ali and the GoG for honouring me and giving me the privilege to serve our country in such prestigious assignments. I can only assure President Ali and our people that I will serve with the same eagerness, vibrancy, diligence and competence that I have become known for during my service in Guyana over several decades. As always, promoting our country and working to ensure that our people benefit optimally are my priority.
As I move on to a new set of assignments outside of Guyana, I want to express my gratitude to colleagues, past and present. For decades, I have had the very good fortune to work with individuals who helped create a milieu that was stimulating, empowering and rewarding.
I am especially grateful to those around me every day who ensured that I was able to focus on the critical matters. Every person in this stimulating and rewarding milieu played a part, each as important as the others, whether they occupied a senior position or helped to ensure we have a clean environment to work.

Those who are employed at the lowest level proved to be as important as those who were employed at the highest levels. We worked in all my assignments as a TEAM. I am profoundly grateful.
I am proud to have served in the many capacities that I have served in Guyana. I have been proud to tell our stories because, in spite of many challenges and disappointments, I believe that, overall, we served with distinction. While we continue to face challenges and while each day we have disappointed people, I believe as public servants we have served our country and our people with distinction. I am hopeful that in my new assignments we will continue to serve with distinction.
Our amazing country has positioned itself as a leader in food, climate and environmental and energy security. As small as we are, we have become a critical part of the equation to secure global food security, global climate and environmental security and energy security. We have shown that the right policies and with world-class public servants, not only can we help to achieve food, climate and environmental and energy security, but that we can grow our economy at a sustained unprecedented rate.
Guyana has become a model country for and a rare country in which carbon credit sales have become a meaningful part of our economy. While it is foolish not to recognize the significance of oil and gas in the unprecedented growth of our GDP, we must not lose sight of the government’s aggressive policy directions to achieve a diversified economy.

Agriculture was the mainstay of Guyana’s economy in the colonial days and maintained this position post-independence.
Now post-oil and gas, agriculture has repositioned itself to remain a foundation of the economy. With new crops and better production of the old crops, Guyana is poised to show the world that agriculture remains a viable leader of an economy. Long after oil and gas, agriculture will continue to be Guyana’s mainstay in the economy.

It is exciting times in our country. Yes, it is still a work in progress. But right in front of our eyes, we can already see the transformation. As a child I dreamt of getting a bicycle; the children of today dream about fancy cars and nice homes, of vacation in fancy places.
I will represent our country with vigor and ensure that the same excitement that pervades our country is seen in our representation abroad. I will ensure that people will want to come and visit, want to come and invest, want to come and participate in the story of Guyana.
I have confidence that our leaders, like President Irfaan Ali; Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo; Prime Minister Mark Philips and the cabinet, will succeed in establishing Guyana, a small country, as a global leader. I have great confidence that our people will come to understand and see what progress and prosperity look like.
As I leave to take up my new post far away from Guyana, rest assured that Guyana and my sisters and brothers will be in my thoughts every second of the day. I look forward to coming home and continuing the work for our country, our Eldorado.
Yours sincerely,
Dr. Leslie Ramsammy