Looking for a legacy in all the wrong places

Jun 12, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Political observers have to be blind not to see that Mr. Bharrat Jagdeo is in a rush to find a legacy and leave it emblazoned on the pages of Guyanese history. After 2011, Mr. Jagdeo would have been a Guyanese Head of State for twelve years. That is time enough for any leader to carve a niche for him/herself in the nation’s psyche.
Climate change is the avenue Mr. Jagdeo has chosen to find his niche. Will it work for him? The answer is obvious. It will not, because all the factors are against him.
Mr. Jagdeo has chosen climate change because he senses that Mr. Obama and the Democratic Party will place that near to the top of their agenda and with Mr. Jagdeo’s constant banging, he hopes he is given international attention in the scheme of things. He is wrong. Both the Democratic Party and American President have all the intention in the world to push the global community to focus on climate change, but immediate priorities in the area of the economy and foreign policy have pushed this concern further down Mr. Obama’s agenda.
One would like to think that President Jagdeo has a good understanding of the mess Mr. Obama has inherited from eight years of Republican extremism and domestic turmoil.
If ecological concerns will be given prominence by the Obama administration it will not be in time for Mr. Jagdeo to find a place in the campaign. If he is reelected, Mr. Obama may initiate an intense campaign for saving the environment. By that time, Mr. Jagdeo may be in the Guyanese spotlight for negative rather than positive reasons if the opposition wins the 2011 poll.
Why has Mr. Jagdeo chosen an international issue to rest his legacy on? Two answers could be examined. One is that he is simply copying the two huge personalities that went before him. But it begins and ends there. Forbes’s Burnham’s international activism for a strategic place for the Third World in international relations contained some measure of success because firstly, the Third World in the seventies was a very influential global actor and Mr. Burnham’s was able to project himself into the heart of the project. Secondly, the Caribbean conceded that Burnham could perform the role of Caribbean champion for this purpose.
In the case of Jagan’s call for a New Global Order, he was listened to because the international community knew about him for a long time. Unfortunately, Mr. Jagdeo’s timing is wrong. The Third World’s role in shaping international events is yet to be reborn.
Added to this, Mr. Jagdeo lacks Burnham’s leadership qualities (note the plural). Then there is the question of Mr. Jagdeo’s obscurity in the Caribbean context. The world does not see Mr. Jagdeo as a Caribbean champion.
The other answer to the issue of why Mr. Jagdeo has looked outside Guyana to find his legacy is one that is very harsh on the Guyanese President. He simply does not have the finesse, astuteness, political ingenuity, intellectual erudition and leadership qualities to transform Guyanese social and political structure in order to create a heroic standing for himself.
One suspects that Mr. Jagdeo knows this, thus his climate change calling. Unfortunately, Mr. Jagdeo is not going to acquire a legacy from an international campaign to save the environment. The reason is because he is not going to carry his country with him in the battle. When he looks over his shoulder, his army will not be there and it will be him alone.
Mr. Jagdeo could hold countless sessions at the Convention Centre. He could allocate an entire calendar year for consultations with all of Guyana’s stakeholders. The main communities in Guyana are not going to rally around their President because he is widely perceived to be a dictator in the mould of Forbes Burnham. Mr. Jagdeo is a very unpopular governor. He hasn’t got the national support he needs to push his climate change agenda onto the world stage.
Mr. Jagdeo could still go down in history. Greatness is awaiting any President of Guyana if he/she knows what this country needs to save it. It is inclusive governance. We have been a divided people for more than sixty years. Guyana hasn’t moved since the fifties.
If Mr. Jagdeo wants to be remembered as a great Caribbean man and a hero in Guyana then he must take the step that most in and out of Guyana would like to see – a national government that will transform the psyche of this nation. The spirit of this nation will be lifted once every citizen feels that they have a government that they can love and respect.

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