Who says…
…PNC shouldn’t be pressured?
Caretaker “Minister” of Foreign Affairs, Dr Karen Cummings just returned from the UN General Assembly where she represented caretaker “President” David Granger. There she pledged continued support for the Palestine refugees and ringingly declared, “We must continue to encourage the parties to engage in respectful dialogue with a view to a peaceful resolution of this longstanding conflict”.
Yet, immediately upon her return to our dear old, mud land, she announced that the calls by the international community for the PNC-led government to honour the Constitution and proclaim a date for elections were “uncalled for”!! In other words, she was rebuking the US, the UK, the EU, the OAS, the Commonwealth – pretty much half of the world – for mentioning what they saw as a clear violation of international norms of democratic behaviour by the PNC!!
Well, what if Israel tells her that Guyana’s advice for them to negotiate with the Palestinians is “uncalled for”?? Especially when she added, “But you know, we strive to ensure that we don’t interfere in other person’s territory.” But that’s the rub, isn’t it?? International norms have evolved quite a ways in the last few decades. The world has realised that what begins as “domestic” problems, can quickly escalate into “international” ones. And the best course is to head off these problems before they “explode like a sore full of pus”.
And just as we can advise the Israelis and the Palestinians to work out their problems peacefully, the countries and International bodies mentioned above, not only have the right, but the obligation, to advise the PNC to do the right thing when they see it blatantly traducing the tenets of democracy. Cummings complained that “Elections calls were not necessary”!!! Really?
The CCJ ruled that the 3-month mandated period for elections after an NCM was on “pause” during the PNC’s appeals and kicked in on June 18. And yet the PNC blithely and ostentatiously ignored the new three-month period which ended on Sept 18, and now Cummings has the temerity to claim that the PNC shouldn’t be “advised”? Well, she should note that the western powers that have literally kept us afloat – especially the EU which has been funding our sea defences! – also warned that they might’ve cut off their aid.
But honestly, dear readers, this is what happens when you put in a rank amateur to run a sensitive ministry like “foreign affairs”. Her reference about Caricom’s “non-interference” merely highlighted the latter’s shameless repetition of their studied silence during Burnham’s 28-year-old dictatorship.
She should heed the old folk saying, “moon a run till day ketch am”.
The PNC will be caught and thrown out on March 2, 2020!!
…Greenidge shouldn’t be Foreign Minister?
No. Your Eyewitness isn’t alluding to the rank amateurism and gaucheness (one doesn’t ineluctably lead to the other!) of Dr Cummings. Even though he’d rather hoped her training in medicine should’ve alerted her to the need not to cuss out the life support machine (read the international community) when the patient (Guyana, maimed by the PNC) is clearly suffering from structural organ failure!!
He’s reconsidering the status of Carl Greenidge. The man was fired from his job (OK…OK…moved laterally?!) as “Foreign Affairs Minister because he’s a “dual citizen” – British-Guyanese. But honestly, dear readers, isn’t this exactly what’s needed in this post?? Think of it…it’s like having our own man embedded in MI6!! As a Britisher, isn’t there some sort of masonic-like signals he can flash when negotiating with those officials in the British Foreign Office, to get us the inside track??
Your Eyewitness is lobbying for Greenidge to be reinstated to his old position.
And it has nothing to do with the fact he might be able to challenge Granger as a PNC old head!!
…it’s the old politics?
Alston Stewart, the (Jamaican) PNP activist masterminded PNC’s 2015 election win as their campaign manager. He was caught with ammo and magazine while on his way here for the upcoming elections.
Importing “garrison” politics?
