WHILE PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo lost no time in extending congratulations to the Surinamese leader, Desi Bouterse as his country’s newly-elected President, PNCR leader, Robert Corbin, has opted to engage in cheap politicking.

It relates to a dubious role Corbin had played at the height of the political tension resulting from Suriname’s shocking resort to ‘gunboat diplomacy’.
That development followed the use by Surinamese authorities of two gunboats to force cessation of oil drilling operations by the CGX Energy. The company was operating, under licence from Guyana, in an offshore area recognised as Guyanese territorial space.

It was an act by Suriname in violation of the treaty-based diplomatic norms governing the behaviour of all member states of CARICOM in resolving disputes.

Guyana’s contention of its territorial sovereignty was to be eloquently endorsed in an historic 2007 ruling by a United Nations Tribunal on the Law of the Sea.

However, as if not burdened enough with attempts to forge an elusive electoral alliance between the PNCR and the Alliance for Change, Corbin last week sought to revive his party’s role in secret talks in Suriname with Bouterse’s National Democratic Party (NDP) at the time of the crisis over the CGX oil rig ejection.

Corbin’s objective was to trumpet as a decisive ‘contribution’ to the withdrawal of the gunboats, an accord signed between his party and that of Bouterse.

But his political ego did not stop there. Corbin went on to blame the governing PPP for “misrepresenting the nature and accomplishments” of the visit. He also claimed that his refusal to respond to criticisms at the time was done “in the interest of national security.”

In the absence of any specific information, a question of much relevance is whether the PNCR leader had considered, in Guyana’s “national interest,” to first seek a private meeting with President Jagdeo to discuss his proposed mission to Suriname, perhaps with the caveat that the matter remains confidential until his return from Suriname.

Corbin would have been aware at the time of the Guyana Government’s intensive involvement with the then administration in Paramaribo, and CARICOM in general, to diffuse the conflict that had arisen from the unprovoked hostile action by Suriname authorities.

The PNCR is sufficiently experienced in governance to have known that however well-intentioned the idea to engage in bilateral talks with the NDP, the Guyana Government could not have allowed itself to be perceived as sanctioning a two-track approach in the prevailing threatening circumstances.

Indeed, the NDP leader, and now new President of Suriname, who is familiar with the policies of the ruling PPP and the government’s interest in forging friendly relations with a government in Paramaribo, would, on reflection, understand  the criticisms then made about the PNCR delegation’s visit.

Outgoing President Runaldo Venetiaan, currently in the process of a peaceful transfer of State power to President Bouterse, knows much about the strenuous efforts made to keep the political lid from exploding over that most regrettable resort to ‘gunboat diplomacy’.

Thankfully, CARICOM’s collective initiatives proved most helpful for both States to now, more than ever, deepen relations for mutual progress and harmony. Additionally, there was the historic ruling by the UN Tribunal on the Law of the Sea.

Those who have time to crow about doubtful ‘achievements’ should take care that they do not provoke unnecessary frictions where NONE need exist while both Guyana and Suriname keep looking ahead.

As expressed by President Jagdeo in his congratulatory message of President Bouterse: “It is my hope that we can work together to further improve and deepen the relations between our two countries…”