Both the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organization of American States (OAS) have become involved in assisting Guyana to deal with the complexities of political and socio-economic problems in the bauxite town of Linden after a month-long crisis involving violent protests, costly acts of arson and the killings of three protesters.
First, on August 20, the Georgetown-based CARICOM Secretariat announced that at the request of the Guyana government it had “recommended three distinguished CARICOM nationals to serve on a commission of inquiry expected to probe “matters related to the events of July 18 in Linden”.
While the CARICOM statement avoided alluding to any of the matters, the reality, as known to the people of Linden, Guyana as a whole, including government, opposition parties, business and religious communities and, of course, the Guyana Police Force, is the particular focus related to the deaths.
The three “distinguished” CARICOM nationals are Jamaica’s former chief justice, Lensley Wolfe (current chairman of the Public Service Commission of Jamaica); K.D. Knight, a senior counsel and former minister of national security and foreign affairs of Jamaica; and Dana Seetahal, a senior counsel and former independent senator of Trinidad and Tobago and currently a columnist of the Trinidad Express.
What is quite puzzling is that while the government of President Donald Ramotar and the combined parliamentary opposition – which have a one-seat majority in the 65-member National Assembly – have welcomed the commissioners, there was no consensus on their original terms of reference.
The opposition wanted the probe restricted to the deaths, while the government felt, and quite naturally, that the circumstances of the killings should also form part of the inquiry.
Surprisingly, while the government and opposition were still focused on evidently flawed terms of reference, the OAS was last week announcing its readiness to provide support for Guyana.
This “support”, as expressed in a statement, is to help in the country’s “requirements to maintain peace and security and strengthen human rights and democracy following the recent unrest in Linden . . .”.
What Barbadians, Jamaicans, Trinidadians and other nationals of the 15-member Caribbean Community would naturally be interested in learning is how can any team of “distinguished” commissioners – learned and well-meaning as they are reputed to be – can appropriately carry out an inquiry into the disturbances, human and other tragedies in Linden, without a meaningful inquiry into all related aspects of what combined to represent the so-called “crisis” in town?
Relatedly, there remain questions about the modalities of operations by the OAS in fulfilling its own commitment to be of assistance to Guyana in the interest of ensuring “peace and security and the strengthening of human rights and democracy . . .”.
• Rickey Singh is a noted Caribbean journalist.
