Your Eyewitness must say he was quite dumbfounded when he read the tributes of the Guyanese delegation to the funeral of ex-Surinamese dictator Desi Bouterse. Your Eyewitness is quite aware that we Guyanese – as good colonial subjects – imbibed the British stiff upper lip tradition expressed in Latin, “De mortuis nil, nisi bonnum – of the dead, speak only the good”. But jeez, our delegates were so over the top!! “One of the Caribbean’s great souls”, crooned ex-president Donald Ramotar!! Doesn’t say much about the Caribbean of Loverture and Cuffy, does it??!!
Criticising Western nations’ support for Israel’s genocidal actions in Gaza and Ukraine’s stance against Russia, Ramotar declared, “It is those same morally bankrupt and decadent politicians that have persecuted Comrade Bouterse. Those are the same ones that persecuted and accused him of all types of things.”
Now, whatever else Bouterse might’ve achieved, can the Guyanese politicos who offered those peans to his glory forget he was CONVICTED by a Surinamese Court of ordering the 1982 round up, torture and murder of FIFTEEN civil society critics – including lawyers, journalists, and a university professor – of his 1980 “Sergeants’ coup”, that led to a seven-year military dictatorship??
The former dictator had conceded “political responsibility”, but had insisted that since he wasn’t present for the killings – known as the “December murders – he shouldn’t be prosecuted.” He had unsuccessfully tried to push through an amnesty law after being elected in 2010. Then, in 2016, he had ordered Suriname’s Attorney General to halt legal proceedings for alleged “national security” reasons. A court rejected that.
All of us know that there’s no morality in international politics, where nations cold-bloodedly pursue their interests; but, surely, we gotta draw the line somewhere when it comes to political leaders murdering their own citizens for merely expressing their opinions.
To say – as the Guyanese ex-president did – that Bouterse was for the ordinary working people, and then use this as an excuse for canonising him as a national hero is really too much.
Would he say the same about Forbes Burnham, whom a Commission of Inquiry concluded was responsible for the assassination of Walter Rodney?? Burnham was also for “the little man”, wasn’t he?? And he wasn’t actually at Bent and George Streets when Gregory Smith detonated that bomb which blew away Rodney’s face, was he??
Most interestingly, Joseph Harmon – who had been a major in the GDF then – said Burnham had picked him to discuss an “international issue” with Bouterse – the Suriname military dictator!! “From that day onwards, we have had long meetings,” reminisced Harmon fondly.
After a 2004 MOU signed between Bouterse’s party and the PNC, according to Wikileaks, Bouterse’s son took weapons into Buxton!!
…on Exxon’s reach??
Your Eyewitness is surprised at the continued war of attrition being waged by a recalcitrant minority to force the Government to “force” Exxon to the “renegotiation table”!! Yet, these are the same people who snicker at Cheddi Jagan’s “naivete” in denouncing the Americans as “imperialists” who were sucking out our wealth and enriching themselves. Now, your Eyewitness has emphasized that, with changed circumstances, the reactions of countries may also change. For example, by 1990, Gorbachev’s Glasnost had made Cheddi acceptable to the Yanks – cause their interests weren’t threatened no mo’.
But ideological affinity ain’t the only interest, and in fact mightn’t even be the most important one to the Yanks. American business was, is, and will always be numero uno – around which all others revolve. So, do these “negotiators” think Exxon does not influence its government when it comes to protecting its interests in an age where energy security trumps all?? Remember Tillerton??
And please…we’re no Canada, or even Newfoundland, when it comes to breaking the sanctity of contracts!!
…confession?
In explaining its stubborn efforts to forge a coalition of opposition parties to contest the 2025 General Elections, the remnants of Rodney’s party admitted their motivation: “WPA realistically cannot win an election on its own”!!
You think ever?
