–    While strengthening neighbouring and global ties
SUBSEQUENT to his last address as Guyana’s Head-of-State at the 32nd Regular Meeting of the Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government in Bassetterre, St. Kits and Nevis on CARICOM Day last Monday, His Excellency President Bharrat Jagdeo was lauded for his contribution to regional development and integration by colleague heads of state, in particular former CARICOM Chairman and Prime Minister of Grenada, Hon. Tillman Thomas, who noted that President Jagdeo is a regionalist and loyal supporter of CARICOM.
Both Presidents, Dr Cheddi Jagan and Dr Bharrat Jagdeo have led a sustained struggle for the integration of global communities in collective efforts to address global impacting imperatives, especially in food and social security, and in sustaining efforts to make the world a better and safer place for humankind to survive.  To effect major changes in extant paradigms they have initiated dialogue that have transported to various fora.
Thus it is that the Jagdeo Initiative on Agriculture has impelled an awareness on the dire necessity for CARICOM nations, and indeed nations everywhere, to become more proactive in their agricultural thrust to ensure food security for their people, with all the associated implications for the economy (and the health) of nation-states, while Dr. Jagan’s New Global Human Order has been adopted by the United Nations, as creating a new global dispensation to catalyse equity in the human family seems to be the requisite solution to equalize opportunities for humankind to survive on Planet Earth.
Guyana’s recognized Champion of the Earth has taken our once-despised, tiny nation  that just recently had been relegated to the bottom of every global graph, to new highs, and the respect currently being accorded to our nation on many fronts should be applauded, instead of being denigrated through outright lies and distortions of truths by persons whom are intent on dragging our country back down into the depths it has so painfully climbed out of to take its rightful place as a star in the firmament of the universe.
But from all the indications they are not being as successful as they would like to be, despite their powerful national, regional, and international lobbies, which work very hard at creating impediments to upward mobility of this nation’s development paradigm through efforts to stymie Government’s many initiatives geared toward creating equity and prosperity for all Guyanese.  A recent case in point is clearance of the Norway climate change agreement funds, despite the best efforts of the collective opposition, including their affiliate bodies, such as the Guyana Human Rights (sic!) Association (GHRA), and AFC’s political colleague, the Amerindian People’s Association (APA).
The accolades and most often accompanying treaties that have been bestowed on the leadership of Guyana have been many and have come from diverse bodies, including heads of states, individually and collectively.  A significant tribute to excellent leadership in world affairs to be accorded Guyana is the conference of the chair of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) to Guyana, which is a signal honour and an acknowledgement that our President Jagdeo has achieved a status for our nation on the global map that has placed our yet fledgling nation on a stairway that could only direct our national development trajectory upwards.
The PPP/C had promised in its Manifesto that it will seek to build fraternal bridges with neighbouring countries.  Within a relatively short span of time the Government has gone beyond that promise and premise to incorporate a holistic approach to development that seeks to encompass the world in its contextual message, as initially envisioned by Dr. Cheddi Jagan and advanced on many fronts by President Jagdeo, that the world is a global village and solutions to problems must be sought through the determining consideration that the family of humanity can only conquer adversities – natural and man-made, through dialogue and interrelations that espouse the concept of equity and justice on a global scale.  The formation and the joint initiatives of the body politic of organizations like UNASUR and CARICOM are steps in the right direction.
Guyana and the Region would continue to need Bharrat Jagdeo, even as he resumes the life of a common citizen post-elections of 2011, if only for continuity of the dynamic policies and programmes he has created and driven, and the new President and Cabinet would do well to
appoint him in a capacity where he could serve the interests of the State in particular, and the Region in general, even if as a roving ambassador.  Guyana and the regional states would be poorer if they were to lose a leader of his stature.