After visiting the Kaieteur Falls, he said, “I have visited the seven wonders of the world, but the Kaieteur Falls is truly the world’s 8th wonder”. But he also stated in his autobiography that, during his mission to observe Guyana’s election in 1992, he had never felt more in danger anywhere else in the world. Yet, Jimmy Carter, now known as the best former president ever anywhere in the world, played a pivotal role in changing Guyana from those dreadful times.
The journey we began in 1992 with Jimmy Carter has led to Guyana being the most exciting possibility for a country of progress and prosperity. Jimmy Carter has an indelible place in the pages of Guyana’s history. He will always be a hero in the eyes of most Guyanese. For obvious reasons, some would not embrace this notion; but, even among those, there are people who grudgingly acknowledge that Jimmy Carter played an indispensable role in placing Guyana on the road to freedom and democracy, modernization, progress and prosperity.
The Guyanese people mourn – along with our American sisters and brothers, and with countless millions around the world – the passing of an iconic figure in our history. President Jimmy Carter swooped into Guyana on October 12, 1990, and, barely 24 hours later, breezed out after having secured a deal with the then Guyanese President Desmond Hoyte for electoral reforms; something many others had tried and failed to accomplish.
The local Opposition parties, at the time led by Cheddi Jagan, had tried for more than two decades to obtain those same reforms. CARICOM leaders, even if half-heartedly, had tried for over two decades and failed. The Commonwealth and other leaders had tried, but the PNC-led dictatorship — first under the leadership of Forbes Burnham, and then under the leadership of Desmond Hoyte — would not bend.
Just before President Carter landed in Guyana, President Desmond Hoyte declared, on October 10th, 1990, that Guyana was a sovereign state, it has no obligation to listen to Jimmy Carter; counting of votes at the polling station was never going to be permitted, and that Guyana was not interested in any foreigner dictating to it, famously insinuating that Jimmy Carter should mind his own business. Within 24 hours, despite Hoyte’s bravado and intemperance, he wilted and meekly bent under the pressure, some would say “magic”, brought by the presence of Jimmy Carter.
In reality, even before President Carter had left the USA to come to Guyana, the deed was done. First, President Carter had informed Dr. Cheddi Jagan that one of the conditions for agreeing to intervene in Guyana was that all political parties, including the Guyana Government, must agree and issue an invitation to the Carter Center.
I was nervously preparing for an important Journal Club presentation at the State University of New York in Stony Brook, where I was a professor of medicine, on the morning of September 27, when the State Department in Washington announced that the Guyana Government had invited the Carter Center. We all knew there and then that the US Government had had enough, had issued an ultimatum, and that Desmond Hoyte had buckled. I knew there and then that the “writing was on the wall”.
But we knew for sure that the deed was done when Jimmy Carter arrived at the then Timehri International Airport in Guyana. The media – dozens of them: from Guyana and the wider Caribbean and America — were in a frenzy. They had expected to engage President Carter, who also had announced a press briefing at the airport. The press briefing was one of the shortest-ever press briefings in history. It lasted just a few seconds. President Carter took the microphone without being introduced by anyone; made a short, single-sentence declaration, and simply left without taking a single question. He declared that he was visiting Guyana to see if the possibility existed for a free and fair election; and if in his mind the possibility was slim, he would not be coming to observe the elections.
It was at that point that he changed the dispensation. it was no longer the Opposition trying to gain reforms and to have Jimmy Carter come to Guyana; it was now up to Desmond Hoyte to get President Carter to come. Desmond Hoyte and the PNC had no choice, because if they allowed him to leave with the pronouncement, he was not coming back; he would have declared unequivocally that there was not even a slim chance that the PNC under Desmond Hoyte was prepared to permit a free and fair election. Desmond Hoyte and the PNC played a game of poker with Jimmy Carter and lost.
In a brief personal discourse with President Jimmy Carter at breakfast on October 13, 1990, I asked him if this was the strategy all along. He looked at me, smiled, said nothing, and shifted the conversation to the famous Stabroek Market.
I was part of the Opposition’s team that prepared our requests for electoral reform that was discussed with President Jimmy Carter on the morning of October 13,1990. With him was his wife Rosalynn Carter, and Robert Pastor. Cheddi was joined by Gail Teixeira. I sat next to Gail, opposite Mrs. Rosalynn Carter. President Carter discussed with us, but did not promise anything, other than that he was going to discuss our proposal for electoral reform with Desmond Hoyte.
That afternoon, while Jimmy Carter was holding talks with Desmond Hoyte and his team, we held a unity rally at the Parade Ground. If memory serves me well, Dr. Rupert Roopnaraine chaired the rally. Several well-known figures spoke, including Clive Thomas, Paul Tennessee and Nanda Gopaul. The last few speakers in order were Leslie Ramsammy, Ashton Chase, Cheddi Jagan and Bishop George.
Just before I spoke, we received word that Desmond Hoyte’s obstinance had collapsed, and he had agreed to the complete list of reforms President Carter had pressed him on. Although the subsequent journey to the first free-and-fair election in post-independence Guyana was in place from October 13, 1990, the journey to that election, which was eventually held on October 5, 1992, was another epic struggle.
From October 12, 1990 until the completion of the election in October 1992, President Carter and the Carter Center remained intimately engaged with the election process. It is my humble view that without the gigantic presence of Jimmy Carter, Guyana’s first free-and-fair election would not have happened then. This is in no way meant to diminish the Herculean struggle led by Cheddi Jagan and the roles played by many individuals and groups. All were critical elements in the epic struggle for free-and-fair elections in Guyana at the time; but, without the presence of Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center, October 5, 1992 would not have been possible.
In the March 2, 2020 elections, the Carter Center conducted its 5th election observation mission in Guyana. President Carter personally led election observation missions in Guyana in 1992, 2006 and 2015, from what I remember. His leadership of the 2015 mission was cut short by illness. Incidentally, the 2006 mission was the 100th election observation mission around the world for the Carter Center.
Few of us would have guessed that the political party and the people who were responsible for all post-independence elections in Guyana up until 1992 being rigged would emerge again to attempt rigged elections in 2020, and that the Carter Center would again play a pivotal role in eventually preventing the riggers from ending Guyana’s fledgling democracy.
In 2020, between March 2 and August 2, the PNC tried desperately to steal the elections. After resistance and legal battles, the PNC-led government was forced to accept a recount. For the recount, they banned the re-entry into the country of international observers, including the Carter Center. A former CARICOM Prime Minster described the attempted thievery as the most “transparent” effort ever to steal an election.
Jimmy Carter and the Carter Center remained engaged with Guyana since those early years. Outside of at least three election observations that he personally led, he visited on another occasion, including in 2004.
Soon after the elections of 1992, the Carter Center worked with the Cheddi Jagan-led PPP Administration to develop Guyana’s first National Development Strategy. Cheddi had selected the young Finance Minister Bharrat Jagdeo to lead the Guyanese team in developing the NDS. Later, as President, Bharrat Jagdeo launched the NDS.
While he earned his place as a major personality in Guyana’s history, Guyanese also remember President Carter for his high moral and social justice values. For Guyanese and most Americans, Jimmy Carter would forever be remembered as America’s best-ever former President. As Guyana intensifies its renewable energy strategy, we remember that Jimmy Carter was the first American president to place focus on renewable energy, and had placed solar panels on the roof of the White House.
Today Guyana’s LCDS is a global model for reducing carbon emissions, and the Carter Center consistently promotes Guyana’s LCDS economic model.
President Carter was the first American president to hire significant numbers of women and African-Americans in the US Government at high levels. For instance, Andrew Young, a civil rights leader, became the first-ever African -American to be the US’ UN Representative. Today, Guyana itself ranks high in the participation of women in Parliament and in Government.
As President, Carter changed America’s foreign policy. His foreign policy was based on peace and fairness. Jimmy Carter’s greatest foreign policy achievement was his negotiation of the Camp David Accords, which have not been violated in more than 40 years, and have finally brought peace between Egypt and Israel. Even as the incoming American president has revived talk of retaking the Panama Canal, we must remember that it was President Carter who had handed over the Panama Canal to the Panamanians, improving relationships with Latin American governments.
Although normalisation with China was initiated by President Richard Nixon, it was Jimmy Carter who formalised the normal relationship with China. It was also Jimmy Carter who negotiated the SALT-II disarmament treaty with the Soviets, although it was not ratified by the Senate. Still, it made the world a safer place.
Among Carter’s humanitarian work around the world is his leadership of Habitat for Humanity. Thousands of homes for the poor were built under the Carter Center’s role in Habitat for Humanity, with President Carter personally contributing financially and physically. President Carter worked with several African countries to increase agricultural production with genetically selected seeds, fertilizer, and special planting techniques. In 1985, he launched a campaign to eradicate a parasitic disease, guinea worm, that afflicted millions across Africa and parts of Asia. As a result, last year, there were fewer than 20 cases. He also worked to reduce other devastating diseases, including river blindness and trachoma. We must not underestimate the impact of the Carter Center on the global fight to improve mental health, especially among adolescents.
He was an American, given birth in America, but he was truly a global citizen of great worth. A great man has passed, and Guyana mourns his passing as if he were one of us. President Carter deserves Guyana’s highest national honour.
Dr Leslie Ramsammy
