“We are peaceful…not weak” – H.E. Mohamed Irfaan Ali.
Human beings love to belong to entities beyond their individual selves. This is most obvious with the family, a space of security, comfort, love, and self-realization. From the nuclear family, we go to the extended family, then the neighbourhood, the village, and larger and larger concentric circles of affinities and affections. Through all these entanglements, the belonging that is most powerful, that is nonchalantly self-regenerating, and unfathomably meaningful, is that difficult to define but yet all-embracing entity we know as the nation.
Nationhood is where individuals from different ethnic, economic, religious, and cultural backgrounds, allow themselves to be beckoned, and then woven into a structured totality called the People. The people is a massive promissory note that under all circumstances, you the citizen, shall stand strong and defend the nation from all enemies foreign and domestic, and that you shall without reservation, put the interest of Guyana before all partisan, political, or personal interests.
The nation and its sovereignty are sacred. But we must be cognizant that we live in a troubled world, one that is so often brutally unbalanced, unfair, unequal. A world where all too often, might makes right, a world, where “the poor go thirsty in an abundance of water.” Yes, this is the world. A world where the desires of some, are built on the depravation of others.
Small nations know this lesson all too well, and history has shown that in the face of external threats to national sovereignty, patriots leave their partisan interests behind and stand with the nation. But sadly, in fact, astoundingly, this has now been betrayed by the Opposition led by Mr. Aubrey Norton of the PNC-APNU and AFC.
On Friday May 23, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hon. Hugh Hilton Todd presented a six-point motion in the National Assembly. For the record, the motion is below:
BE IT RESOLVED that this National Assembly:
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- Recalling its Motion passed on November 6, 2023 in reaffirming the recognition of the 1899 Arbitral Award and the 1966 Geneva Agreement;
- Unequivocally reaffirms the sovereignty, territorial integrity, independence and indissolubility of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana;
- Strongly condemns the actions of the Government of Venezuela in defiance of the May 1, 2025 Order of the ICJ and views such actions as a violation of international law and a threat to regional peace and stability;
- Expresses its full support for the Government of Guyana in its efforts to protect and defend Guyana’s territorial integrity through peaceful and lawful means, including continued recourse to the International Court of Justice;
- Calls upon the international community to support Guyana in upholding the rule of law and the binding decisions of the International Court of Justice;
- Directs that copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Secretaries-General of the United Nations, the Commonwealth, the Organisation of American States, the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States, the Heads of State and Government of the Caribbean Community as well as other relevant international bodies.
Instead of supporting this motion of existential importance to the nation, Aubrey Norton and his cohort of PNC-APNU-AFC political reprobates, walked out of the National Assembly in ignominy, offering succor and comfort to the enemy.
How sad, how disappointing, but also how irresponsible and dangerous that this Opposition PNC-led APNU and AFC could not fathom that this nation could be in danger with the illegal elections that Venezuela is holding for our Essequibo on May 25th. The Leader of the Opposition PNC-led APNU has now gone down in history as the first political figure to effectively (even if only symbolically) abandon the defence of this nation in the face of imminent aggression.
Minister Todd delivered a powerful and indeed moving case why the motion should be adopted. He was supported through compelling speeches by MP Alister Charlie, and Ministers Frank Anthony, Robeson Benn, and Anil Nandlall. Through these exhortations for the nation to stand as one, the –PNC-APNU and AFC members of parliament sauntered about aimlessly in the halls and corridors of the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), knowing fully and well, that there was a call for the government and people of Guyana to fulfil the most fundamental obligation of citizenship, namely, to defend Guyana’s national sovereignty.
Sovereignty is more than about national independence. Rather, it is the central articulating element of the national self; the life-blood of nationhood, the symbolic and referential nexus that underwrites the structural cohesion of the national existential condition. National sovereignty takes its highest form when that totality called The People, commit themselves to collectively and individually defend the nation.
The conditions for unmitigated national solidarity is now. Yes, now is the time to be “bent double; like old beggars under sacks; knock-kneed; coughing like hags…” May 23, 2025 will go down in history as a day in infamy, the day when the PNC-led APNU and the AFC, by their actions in the National Assembly, chose to step back from their solemn duty to defend Guyana’s national sovereignty.
While our own have turned their backs, others have yet again reaffirmed their non-negotiable support for the territorial integrity and national sovereignty of these 83,000 square miles. For that, the international community must be acknowledged. A grateful nation acknowledges the friendship and arrangements with the United States of America, the United Kingdom, India, France, Canada, our sister Caribbean countries, and the EU. We know that the UN also stands for the sanctity of international law, and thus by implication is our side.
A very happy 59th Independence Anniversary to one and all, the Opposition included.