Dear President Granger,
It pains me to write an open letter to you, as I believe that, using the normal channels, my letter will not get to you on time.
When I was invited to visit Guyana as a member of the diaspora, to attend the 50th Anniversary National Symposium in May 2016, I had only a couple of days left after the symposium to return to my home in the UK. Your confidential secretary made urgent arrangements for us to meet, so I could personally present to you my book, “Recycling a Son of the British Raj”, and update you about my voluntary healthcare activities in the U.K. and about a conference I was arranging in London for the 50th Anniversary, with the Association of Guyanese Nurses and Allied Professions(AGNAP) in June of that year.
Mr. President, despite the considerable 50th Anniversary celebration pressures on your time, you found a slot to not only meet with me, a humble person who left Guyana in 1961, but to give me the full VIP treatment, with lots of photographs and videos; and in return for receiving my book, you gave me several copies of historical short books you had written.
As I am two years older than you, we had a good Guyanese ‘gaff’ about our experiences of using slates at school and ways in which the saying “hand wash hand ‘mek’ hand come clean” could be applied.
I was absolutely bowled over by your warmth and sincerity.
When I returned home, I not only took every opportunity to say what a splendid person I had met, and that your presidency augurs well for the future development of the country and in the promotion of racial harmony, but being proud that you had met me, I also immediately uploaded the photographs on my website – Guycon Healthcare Management Consultancy(they are still there).
Mr. President, I have taken the unusual step to put in the public arena an example of your humility and graciousness in extending a welcome to a person not in the same league of the wide range of eminent persons, some being your friends, who have gone public in asking you to put Guyana first and avoid the calamitous projections which many commentators have highlighted if the will of the electorate is not honoured.
Many of us in the diaspora have left the shores of Guyana many decades ago, but the pull of the navel string has kept us involved in the affairs of the country in a wide variety of nation-building, meaningful voluntary work. We have been saddened by the perpetuation of what one leading United Nations Guyanese-born figure described as a racialised society. This is despite the often-repeated motto, One People, One Nation, One Destiny, by all sides.
As Guyana is on the cusp of a glorious and prosperous new beginning, please, can I ask you to do your best to ensure that Guyanese do not continue to live in an environment of uncertainty and extreme anxiety, and contribute to healing a troubled nation by taking action which respects the will of the electorate?
Guyana deserves it, sir. If, by chance, this letter is brought to your attention, thank you for reading it.
Yours sincerely
Peter Ramrayka
