AN ADMISSION OF WEAKNESS

Mar 11, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

---

The President always finds the most unusual way to call for increased political cooperation. The latest call was made at Babu John last Sunday and followed some tongue-lashing unleashed on the opposition, PNCR and the AFC.
Someone needs to advise the President that when he is calling for greater political cooperation, he has to do so through conciliatory language. The President was far from conciliatory and therefore his words about political cooperation are not going to register.
He cannot expect to lambaste the opposition in one breath and then expect to be taken seriously in the next when he calls for political cooperation.
In calling for political cooperation, the President exposed the Achilles heel of his administration. He showed his fears. He said that in any engagement with the opposition, the government is not going to be dominated.
The opposition would have caught on to that because it shows the insecurity within the ruling party about being taken advantage of by the opposition. It is a confession that the PPP is not confident that it can hold its own in discussions with the PNCR and the AFC and therefore has to make it clear that it will not be dominated.
Well the PPP can only blame itself for having these fears. After the 2001 elections, Mr. Desmond Hoyte presented a menu of measures which he wanted placed on the negotiating table.
All the measures were matters of concern to his constituency. The PPP never once placed an item on the agenda and thus allowed the PNCR items to dominate the talks between the two sides.
Mr. Hoyte had his way, not because he bullied the PPP, but because the PPP was incompetent in not laying its own concerns on the negotiating table.
So when the President reveals his fear about being dominated, he must also state that his party and government have in all its engagements with the PNCR failed to wrest any meaningful concessions from that party.
PPP administrations have been less than competent in its dealings with the PNCR.
But the PPP also cannot be taken seriously on the question of political cooperation. The AFC extended the olive branch during the most recent Budget debate and this was rebuffed. So no one should take, seriously, anything the President states about political cooperation.
Any meaningful political cooperation will have to wait until after the Jagdeo presidency.
All Guyanese would thus be better advised to ignore when the President speaks about political cooperation.
The second broadside that was launched at Babu John was an attack on the United States over its most recent anti-narcotics strategy report on Guyana.
Now this report reaffirmed that the government is not in league with drug traffickers and therefore the recent lobby that was said to have been launched in Washington can be said to have been a total failure.
However, the report does make some criticisms of Guyana’s drug-fighting efforts. It makes even stronger criticisms against other Caribbean countries. Yet those countries have been less strident in their condemnation of the United States.
The tirade that that was launched by our own President must therefore be put down to lack of political experience because Guyana ought to have been pleased with this report when read in the context of what it said about the efforts of some of the other countries in the Caribbean and also in relation to previous reports.
Guyana has long made the case that the United States has weak law enforcement controls when it comes to drug trafficking.
It has long been repeated that the United States demands that small countries such as ours take a greater role in preventing the outflow of narcotics. It also well established that the level of assistance that is being given by the United States to fight drug trafficking is negligible.
These things do not require repeating.
The United States acts in its own interest. It is powerful and therefore uses its muscle to demand from us measures that are not supported by financial assistance.
But we have also consistently bowed to US pressure and acceded to their demands. We have reformed our laws to facilitate easier extradition – or so we thought.
Obviously we cannot negotiate with the United States on an even basis. We have to bow to pressure. Similarly, the government has control of the State and therefore should not harbour any fears that in any engagements with the opposition it can be dominated.
The government is too strong to be dominated and more so now that the opposition is fragmented and weaker than before.
The only way that the government can be dominated is if it negotiates with the opposition in an incompetent way. Perhaps the fears that are being expressed are an admission that the government cannot negotiate even from a position of strength.

---

---