WE PROUD OF BHARRAT!

Apr 21, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

President Jagdeo is a very engaging personality. He no doubt has his supporters as well as his detractors. But whether or not you like President Jagdeo, if you are a Guyanese you should be proud of the fact that he was chosen to be the chief spokesperson for CARICOM in the discussions with US President Barack Obama.
To have been accorded such an honour speaks highly of the esteem with which Guyana’s President is held by his counterparts in the Region. Guyanese should be proud of that fact.
Our President’s attendance at the fifth Summit of the Americas would have no doubt also added to his political experience. He would have witnessed how his counterparts from Latin America reach compromise as well as how they can be defiant when it comes to principles. By attending the summit, our President ought to have emerged from that experience as a better leader, someone who would have grasped the need to find common ground with others.
When it comes to international politics, political leaders in general show their best colours. They say the right thing and are often prepared to do the right thing. For example, even though US foreign policy towards Cuba has not and is not likely to be significantly altered, we found at least President Obama was not predisposed towards engaging in a tit for tat. His tone was very conciliatory even though much of what he said was vacuous.
Obama is not going to overturn the embargo on Cuba. The restrictions that he has relaxed are minor concessions. He got more than what he gave since US telecommunication companies can now be involved in Cuba. Despite all the talk about a new relationship towards Cuba, the fact remains that his policy is still mired in the old framework which demands that Cuba accedes to the western model of democracy before there can be significant movement in the improvement of relations between that country and its powerful neighbour to the West.
At the summit, the Americans were operating on the basis that the strength of the American economy was far more important to the fate of Latin America than a new policy which respects the right of nations to adopt a different model of development from that which has allowed the centuries-old exploitation by the West.
America believes that the best way it can help the region is to first help itself because a strong US economy would allow for more benefits to the region. Thus, America was not going to offer any substantial trade packages; it was not going to wind down protectionism nor was it going to try to reform the Washington Consensus.
Latin Americans, therefore, while I am sure are welcoming the more constructive tone set by President Obama, would know that at the end of the summit very little has changed in terms of the relationship between the world greatest superpower and a region where poverty is widespread.
Obama offered very little and the fact that the final communiqué was not unanimously approved spoke about the long distance which has to be traveled, and no doubt also, about the disappointment that more could not have been achieved at this summit.
Our President was right when he took the approach that there were perhaps too many things loaded onto the communiqué. He has always at these international meetings made important points which cut through a great deal of the fluff and hype that surround these meetings.
President Jagdeo was spot on when he noted that what was needed was perhaps agreement on a few things, rather than a long communiqué with pledges and commitments to continue to work on this and that. This goes nowhere.
All those pledges and commitments that are contained in the draft communiqué have in the main been made before. This is the format of such meetings; a great deal of talk, a loaded final document but little real substantial progress, except that there must be follow-up.
It was disappointing that with all the advance work that went into this summit, including the fact that the draft communiqué was developed even before the summit began, that nothing other than an agreement to meet later, was agreed in respect to Haiti. We also had the usual promise by the Americans to do something about the demand side for drugs and the small arms trade which has become annexed to the nacro-trade. But we have heard similar commitment before and all that Guyana receives each year is a miserly US$25,000 to fight drug trafficking.
Surely, the United States of America could not be serious.

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WE PROUD OF BHARRAT!

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