Shakespeare told us of the dead that “the good is oft interred with their bones”. But way before Shakespeare, the Romans had advised, “De mortuis nil, nisi bonnum”: ‘of the dead, speak only the good’!! So now that Shridath Ramphal has passed at the ripe old age of almost 96, which homily should your Eyewitness hark to?? He’ll follow that old Clintwood classic, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”!! And Lord knows, with “Sonny” – as he was called by his friends, who may’ve balked with him at the provincial “Shridath”, much less “Surendranauth”!! – there was plenty of each!!
The “good”?? Right off the bat, we know he was a “bright boy”, who didn’t waste the opportunities opened up by his father, who was the first to pass the Senior Cambridge from Berbice High and went on to found his own high school in G/town!! Sonny Boy was duly sent to Queen’s, then to London, where he ate his dinners at Gray’s Inn after studying at King’s College to enter the Bar.
Like Cheddi before him, he married a local nurse, returned to serve in the WI Federation, then was called by Forbes Burnham to be his Solicitor General and advisor on his independence instruments reward.
Guyana was always too small for Sonny Boy’s ambitions, and he persuaded Burnham that he could be useful at the Commonwealth Secretariat, and he was duly nominated and appointed in 1975. From that bully pulpit, he championed a host of “progressive” Third World causes – in which Burnham always got a squeeze to bolster his image – such as the anti-apartheid struggle. However, he never got to become UN Secretary General, which was always his ambition. His sponsor had by then been exposed as the vicious dictator he was!!
The “bad”?? Well, they all came out of his loyalty to Burnham – and flogging that horse long after it was clear that Burnham was a bounder!!
The latter was always a stickler for observing the FORMS of the law, even as he ground the substance into the dust. And Sonny Boy was there advising him as he rigged the 1968 and 1973 elections. He was rewarded with nomination to the Commonwealth SG, and headed off any censure of Burnham’s anti-democratic rule henceforth. Imagine him midwifing a democratic transition in Zimbabwe while Burnham legalized his dictatorship with his 1980 constitution!!
The “ugly”?? Intensification of the above, like developing rules for the Commonwealth to monitor elections even as Burnham, and then Hoyte, increased their rigging atrocities. As a private citizen, he was one of the “three wise men” who facilitated the “Herdmanston Accord”, truncated the PPP’s term in office by two years, and didn’t censure the PNC for fomenting mayhem in the streets!!
…BRICS
Your Eyewitness has written often about the importance of the BRICS grouping if the present inherently unstable bipolar world – the US vs China – is ever gonna evolve into a multipolar one. In the latter, of course, as the members of BRICS jockey for influence within their grouping, steam is not focused in one direction to cause an explosion!! For example, like with India visiting Ukraine to purchase turbines to power ships bought from Russia!! Tensions spread out!!
But the contradictions in BRICS seem to be getting attention, with Russian Foreign Minister Serguei Lavrov announcing they’re temporarily suspending more admissions from the nine that now include Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates – with a waiting list of 40. The reason?? Seems they want to ensure they can coordinate their actions, which would become exponentially hairier with each new member.
Can you imagine what would happen if Mad Maduro’s application is accepted?? He’s already announced his partners would purchase all his oil – even if it pi55es off the Yanks!!
…our anti-drug efforts
The news of the US$200M cocaine bust at Matthews Ridge, with the coordination of local actors like the GDF and the US’s DEA, is indeed good news!! But no GPF?? How corrupt are they exactly??
