GUYANA IS IN THE U.S. SPHERE OF INFLUENCE

Feb 03, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The problem with the Guyana government has been its inability to articulate a foreign policy based on its national interests, including support for certain fundamental and inviolable principles. The government has over the years created a huge vacuum by its failure to develop a foreign policy which is explicit about Guyana’s interests, its adherence to international recognized norms and the ways and means through which it is going to advance its interests.
Guyana’s interest cannot be tied solely to the West. It has never been that way, and even more so today, cannot be tied to any one region of the world. Guyana’s relations have to be expansive. Its interests have to be tied to the East, West, North and South, since given its own situation, it needs to ensure that it has friends, allies and relations in all parts of the world.
During the Cold War era, Guyana retained diplomatic relations with the East as well as the West, with the North as well as with the South. Since then things have changed, and the collapse of the communist bloc has seen a thawing of relations with the communist bloc. Given, however, the rise of global interdependence and the rise of economic powers in the East, Guyana needs to realign its foreign policy objectives, and this includes relations with the Middle East.
For over one year now, Guyana, through its President, has been engaged in building relations with oil-rich nations. This is important not just in terms of investments. While it will take time for these relations to bear tangible economic benefits to Guyana, there is always political capital to be had in developing such relations. So there is absolutely no harm in developing these relations.
The United States has a major issue with Iran, but has not severed diplomatic relations with that country. Britain had also deemed Libya a terrorist nation, but economic interests in the petroleum sector saw it reopen relations with that country. Last year, the authorities in Scotland released on compassionate grounds, Abdelbaset Ali Al Megrahi, who was convicted of the Lockerbie bombing and given a life sentence. There are many who feel that the release of Al Megrahi was based on Britain’s interest in Libya’s petroleum sector and was as a result of a deal, something that has been denied by both countries.
Now if Britain can normalize relations with Libya why can’t a poor country like Guyana eye the oil funds of the Middle Eastern countries? Why can’t Guyana have relations with Iran? Is it because the Americans have problems over Iran’s nuclear capability? If Guyana can have diplomatic relations with Israel why can’t it have diplomatic relations with Iran? Guyana may not benefit much from Iran. But Guyana has a right to choose its friends.
The problem with Guyana is the lack of clarity of its policy on the Palestinian question. Under the PNC, the policy of the government was an unambiguous support for the right of the Palestinian people to self determination. This policy had developed at a time when the liberation forces in Palestine did not recognize Israel’s right to exist. Since then, the Palestinian Liberation Organization has so recognized that country’s right to exist and this facilitated the lopsided accords that have tried to bring peace to the region.
The search for a peaceful settlement to the Palestinian question has led to what the Americans are calling a two-State solution. Our President some time ago mentioned that Guyana supports a two-State solution to the problem in Palestine. That is, Guyana recognizes the need for the security and self determination of both the peoples of Israel and Palestine. What the government of Guyana is doing, in supporting this American concoction of a two-State solution, is effectively supporting the U.S. roadmap to peace in that region, a process that has led to despair and instability in the region.
Having historically built a Middle East foreign policy based on the right of the Palestinian people to their homeland and to self-determination, Guyana is in the American sphere of interest when it comes to its present stance on the Palestinian question. It is therefore ironic for persons to be accusing the government of acting outside of its interests by furthering its relations with the U.S.
Guyana is not going to alarm anyone by deepening its diplomatic ties with Iran, and the reason for this, as has been the experience in relations with Libya, both in the past and recently, is that very little economic assistance is going to come our way from Iran or for that matter from most of the countries in the Middle East.

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