The Bridgetown failure

Sep 23, 2008 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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One suspects that President Bharrat Jagdeo went to Barbados hoping to win because he was buoyed by the enthusiasm he saw at the Convention Centre.

Sir Shridath Ramphal, a Caribbean giant, stood by the President. Professor Clive Thomas threw his weight in. And the President got solidarity from an unlikely source, the PNC.

That was enough for President Jagdeo to feel that he had a solid fulcrum on which to stand when he went to Barbados to fight against the EPA. On the external front, the Guyanese President knew he had Grenada and St. Lucia on his side, so there would be a fight.

President Jagdeo encountered an anti-climax when he turned up in Bridgetown. Of course, he did not know that Trinidad had persuaded Grenada and St. Lucia to fall in line. As it turned out, Mr. Jagdeo was a bit embarrassed, because no CARICOM state argued against signing.

The Guyanese President misread the Caribbean scenario long before he held his “consultation with his people,” two Fridays ago at the Convention Centre.

First, CARICOM is in no mood to listen to anything about Guyana. If it was Jamaica or Barbados making noise about the EPA, circumstances would have taken on a different hue.

CARICOM, since its formation, has been burdened with the “Guyana problem.” The “Guyana problem” simply means Guyana always has a dilemma that Caricom has to solve.

Guyana has caused CARICOM more disruption and political traffic in the integration movement, since its birth under the name Carifta, than any other member.

Mr. Jagdeo was going to Barbados to persuade a group of leaders who were in no psychological mood to discuss a country named Guyana. Secondly, the Caricom Heads are not enamoured of Mr. Jagdeo.

They think he is a left-wing oligarch. If there were Owen Arthur and Portia Simpson in the grouping, they would have been more polite to Mr. Jagdeo, but the two new faces in Bridgetown and Kingston hardly have any sentiments for Guyana. This explains why these two Prime Ministers spoke out directly against Guyana’s position.

PM Thompson even subtly chastised Mr. Jagdeo, saying; “Persons who previously supported certain scenarios that we would have pushed for (are) now pretending that they know nothing about it and are acting as if they are the biggest advocates for us not signing.”

The Bajan PM didn’t name Mr. Jagdeo, but his target was the Guyanese President, and his words were undiplomatic. PM Golding was just as dismissive of Mr. Jagdeo’s advocacy.

He went so far as to directly contradict Mr. Jagdeo’s “goods only” proposal, saying that if Caricom signed on to a “goods only” regime, the EU would want to extract concessions for itself in such an agreement.

The feeling among the BIG Three was that Mr. Jagdeo was up to some anti-imperialist trick in opposing the signing of the EPA, and they do not want the slightest hint of anti-West rhetoric, because the Caribbean is a pro-West region in terms of culture, politics, trade and economics.

Thirdly, and related to number two, is the fact that Caricom countries, especially the BIG Three, are tired of Guyana’s traditional anti-Western bashing, which, since the fifties, has brought nothing good for Guyanese. We have had Jagan in the sixties extolling the virtues of the USSR. Then Burnham’s socialist regime created a mass exodus of Guyanese into all Caricom countries.

The PPP has returned to power, first with Jagan again, then his wife, and now a USSR educated President. Despite sixteen years in power, the Caricom leaders wonder what is happening to Guyana, because the mass exodus continues.

Fourthly, and still related to number two, is the thinking of the regional leaders that, for all its experimentation in anti-Western economic models since the fifties, Guyana is a continuous economic failure, while the rest of Caricom, which is seen as surrogates of Western capitalism, are productive economies to which endless Guyanese are turning.

Mr. Jagdeo, in an address to the media after the meeting, said Guyana has the most open economy in the region.

What Mr. Jagdeo did not reflect on is why his subjects keeping running to Caricom territories and Caricom citizens aren’t coming here.

An invitation to high school kids to sit out their ‘A’ levels in Guyana, after Grenada was devastated by Hurricane Ivan, was not accepted.

Finally, Caricom leaders may have also turned down Guyana’s advice for reasons unrelated to the contents of the EPA itself.

Many Caricom leaders are troubled by the direction the use of power has gone under Mr. Jagdeo. There is a feeling in the region that Guyana is turning out to be a continuation of the unstable days under Forbes Burnham.

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