Stabroek News has a twisted sense of history
– especially in the area of foreign policy

(Part 3: conclusion)

OLD Kai will conclude this brief three-part series in exposing the sinister agenda of the Stabroek News and their handlers by addressing several other aspects of their editorial on April 30, 2014 which sought to cast the foreign policy of successive PPP/C governments in a negative light. The editorial attacks the PPP/C Government of Dr. Cheddi Jagan in 1992 for scaling back the size of the Foreign Affairs Ministry.It says this much in its opening paragraph, “The PPP/C administration has never given the impression that it sets much store by foreign affairs, as a consequence of which it has never invested the kind of resources which would have allowed it to frame a policy reflective of this country’s longer term interests, or build up the expertise which would allow it to respond in anything other than an ad hoc way to unanticipated situations.”

What the editorial does not go into detail to explain is the fact that at a time when starvation and poverty were rife in our nation, and the suffering of our people was enormous, the PNC regime reportedly spent more money on the Foreign Affairs Ministry than it did on health, education, housing, water and agriculture put together.

With all this diplomatic skills under the PNC Government which Stabroek News gloats about, it still cannot point to any benefits our nation and people would have derived, other than the outrageous sums of money which was spent on educating PNC officials, including Aubrey Norton who has now been discarded by his own party.

We were submerged in international debt, our country’s infrastructure was crumbling, and productive sectors were on their deathbed such as Bauxite; Rice and Sugar but the PNC dictatorship would send thousands of pounds sterling to finance Norton’s studies in the UK every month. This was only one individual; imagine the cumulative cost for the countless others and what benefit has our nation received in return?

Yet, the scaled down Foreign Affairs Ministry under the PPP/C which Stabroek News is critical about was able to reduce Guyana’s debt to manageable levels today; attract the greatest amount of international investors at any other period in our history; has established bilateral relations with more countries at any other point in our history; has extended its reach all across the globe; has embarked on the historic LCDs initiative with Norway which brings millions of US dollars into our country for the sustainable development of our people; partnership with Brazil which saw the construction of a bridge to link the two nations and ongoing work to construct a road from Lethem to Linden and a deep water harbour, to make Guyana an export hub for the growing productive sectors in Brazil. Plans are in train for the partnership between Guyana and Suriname despite our border controversy to construct a bridge linking the two nations and similarly, despite our border issue with Venezuela, the two countries have shared very close ties in the area of economic and social cooperation for well over a decade now. The direct benefits of this partnership are evident, none more so than in the rice sector. Can the Stabroek News point to such benefits to our people from the foreign affairs policies of the PNC that it is currently championing? Importantly, both Venezuela and Guyana have resolved to solve their differences peacefully.

The threat that should there be a change of Government in Venezuela, the current Opposition will be ‘bad news’ for Guyana as articulated by Stabroek News to justify our country running into the arms of the US boggles the mind; as least let us remember that the Venezuelan Government under both Mr. Chavez and now Mr. Maduro have consistently accused the US of being the backers of the Venezuelan Opposition and is really the puppet master pulling the strings to create instability in our neighbouring country. But this is not surprising, we have experienced a similar fate in Guyana and the effects still linger today. So if Stabroek News is telling us that the Venezuelan opposition would be a threat to Guyana’s future territorial integrity and if the contentions by the two Venezuelan leaders are true, then it would mean that the newspaper is warning us than any threat to our country will have the blessings of the US. Is this the reason it is urging the nation to become the poodle of the US? Why should an independent nation be forced into such a situation in this day and age? Guyana will remain resolute!

The Venezuelans have a right to determine their own destiny and so does Guyana, without fear that if we refuse to become the minion of an imperialist, they will in turn let loose their goons on us. Surely that kind of policy as articulated by Stabroek News does not encourage the right to self-determination and democracy.

However, the fact remains that under the PPP/C Government, Guyana and all its neighbours have made enormous strides in partnership than at any other point in our history and no attempt at revisionism by the Stabroek News will change this reality.

In the area of maritime boundary, Stabroek News is eager to reference the CGX issue as according to the article, “One might have thought that the government would have woken up…following the 2000 fiasco, when the CGX eviction occurred, but apparently not.”

The newspaper conveniently ignores that Guyana had moved with alacrity to the International Tribunal on the Laws of the Seas and secured a positive ruling to the extent that CGX has returned to exploring in the very area only recently without any trouble. This is the most historic achievement since our Independence in preserving our territorial integrity and it happened under the PPP/C Government. That is effective Foreign Policy in action without the use of force or aggression.

The editorial is also critical of Guyana’s effectiveness at the level of the United Nations, the very place where in 2010 the General Assembly at its 65th session unanimously approved a resolution promoting a New Global Human Order which was the brainchild of late leader, President Cheddi Jagan. The UN named former President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo one of its 5 Champions of the Earth and the UN General Secretary in 2012 appointed President Donald Ramotar to its steering committee to examine the world’s education system. Compare these achievements to any other CARICOM nation or relative to our size in any part of the world and you would come to the conclusion that Guyana has managed to punch way above its weight and has gained unparallel recognition in the international arena than at any other point in our history. This was achieved with the very Foreign Affairs Ministry that Stabroek News is so highly critical of.

This recognition even saw the Heads of State from countries in the Amazon, Congo and Borneo-Mekong forest basins in 2011 appointing Dr. Jagdeo as ‘roving Ambassador’ to represent their interests internationally.

Guyana’s profile as a leader in CARICOM was underlined by its growing influence in regional policies, despite all the talk of Stabroek News about the capabilities of the Foreign Affairs ministry under the PNC dictatorship, it was the PPP/C Government which established the permanent home of the CARICOM Secretariat, partnered with China to construct our first International Convention Centre which has served to increase the number of regional and international conferences being hosted in this country, including for the first time in our history the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) in 2010 when we assumed its Chairmanship.

In July, 2013 Guyana became an associate member of the Southern Customs Union (MERCOSUR) which aims to strengthen ties between our country and its members in several areas including political, economic, trade, productive development and cultural.

Testimony to our increased relationship with other South American nations was the fact that in 2013, Chile awarded our Foreign Affairs Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett their highest civilian honour presented to non-Chilean citizens, the “Order of Bernardo O’Higgins.”

Let us also not forget the consistent effort led by the PPP/C Government to assist others in the CARICOM region when in need, including 2004 when stakeholders in Guyana sent over 26 containers with emergency supplies to Grenada which was ravaged by a hurricane, along with the deployment of 100 troops from the GDF to assist with the rehabilitation efforts on the island. Guyana had also stated that it was prepared to negotiate with the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to amend loan agreements so that existing loans for which Guyana has already qualified can be diverted to Grenada. We had also repatriated some 51 Guyanese who had desired to return home from the island. We have continued to provide assistance to other nations, including Haiti.

Guyana had also taken a lead role in the free trade – economic partnership agreement between the European Union and CARICOM and negotiations between the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) sugar producers and the EU over the latter’s 30% price cuts.

Old Kai can go on and on about Guyana’s increasingly assertive role in foreign policy on the regional and international levels and equally, the increased recognition it has received but what has been highlighted thus far serves to rubbish all the flimsy arguments cobbled together by the Stabroek News.

It is more commendable, because as admitted by the newspaper, it was achieved with a significantly scaled down Foreign Affairs Ministry under the current Government. Guyana has sought in an aggressive manner to broaden its foreign affairs policy in Asia, the Middle East, South Africa and South America where the BRICS nations are found, to go with its traditional partners in the EU and North America. This provides more scope for development rather than just placing all our eggs in one basket. It is a reality which exposes the contention of the Stabroek News editorial that “It is not just where policy approaches to our territorial integrity are concerned that the government is displaying an atavistic tendency, but in its foreign policy leanings overall.”

This strategy by the PPP/C Government is with the long term interests of our country at heart, no more so is this more relevant than the fact that the US will soon be overtaken by China as the largest economy in the world, with Brazil and other BRICS nations also making major strides.