IT was anticipated that those people the Stabroek News (SN) nurtured to perpetuate anti-democratic, pro-western, pro-imperialist narratives alongside those whose hatred of the PPP government is uncontrollably insane would migrate to the Kaieteur News (KN). Mr. Christopher Ram, who for years never wrote a column or a letter in KN, is now a KN columnist.
After him comes a man who I have absolutely no respect for – Bertram Ramcharran. He has now gone over to KN and he continues where he left off in SN. I have not an ounce of respect for the education of Ramcharran. This man is so foolish that he will disgust anyone from the Global South who did a mere one year in International Relations at any university in the post-colonial world.
I honestly believe that every Guyanese and West Indian scholar in International Relations would find Ramcharran’s writings on International Relations despicable. I know many of those scholars, some personally. I know their thinking on international political economy and global politics.
To think that SN allowed this man to write a commentary in which grand praise and undiluted admiration were shown for one of the former heads of Mossad is beyond incredible. Any first-year student in International Relations knows that Mossad is a state terrorist organisation whose violation of civilised norms is tolerated by the West. The state terrorism of Mossad would never be tolerated by the West if committed by another country. The perfect example is the kidnapping of the Venezuelan President by the US.
Ramcharran takes books written by shameless pro- imperialist scholars and eulogises them and thrusts them upon readers of Guyana, a post-colonial country whose two Independence Founders – Burnham and Jagan – are seen as two of the most committed anti-imperialist leaders the Third World produced. I spent four years as a student at UG and taught at UG for 26 consecutive years, and I know of no lecturer in International Relations and International Economics that had a pro-Western outlook. With the publication of Maurice Odle’s autobiography, I do believe his book will be put on the reading list of many lecturers at UG and UWI.
I say without apologies, I don’t think Ramcharran has read Odle’s autobiography and even if he did would not understand Odle’s language and analysis. For one of Guyana’s best scholars, SN did not do even one editorial on Odle’s brilliant exposition of the New Imperialism, and how it dominates the post-colonial world. But how could SN have praised Odle’s book? SN is pro-West, pro-imperialist. Odle’s book is a brilliant take on how little has changed between the colony and empire.
Ramcharran latest journey of propaganda is his admiration for yet another pro-imperialist book – The Coming Storm by Yale Professor Arne Westad. I quote what Ramcharran wrote about the anti-Chinese, anti-Russian, pro- West propaganda of Westad: “The main challenge today for the USA is to find an international role that both serves the interests of its people and contributes toward some form of stability. The strategic aims of the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party are to establish a predominant position in most of Asia, from Siberia and the Russian Maritime provinces, through Southeast Asia and South Asia to the borders of Iran, and into the western Pacific. It is in quest of strategic dominance through a combination of military preponderance and economic supremacy. President Putin’s strategic aim is to re-establish a Russian empire in the countries that had been constituent republics of the former USSR.”
The above quote needs no explanation. There are three superpowers, according to Westad – USA, China and Russia. The US wants international stability, China wants global dominance, Russia wants the empire it once had. There is no talk at all by Westad that the US wants to regain its global hegemony; only Russian wants that.
Westad is anti-Chinese. His academic expertise is Chinese history. He sees China in negative terms. His small book of 256 pages is nothing but pro-Western propaganda that the journal, “Foreign Affairs” has been churning out the past 80 years. Westad’s scholarship is laced with old propaganda that has been so worn out that it is an indictment of Westad’s scholarship that he couldn’t be more innovative and shape his propaganda with some new thoughts.
Westad should change over from Chinese history to American history. If and when he does that he will become a competent academic. At the moment he is not. Changing over to American history he will come to understand which country not only jeapordised international stability but may have a genetic predisposition for international domination rather than international stability.
DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.