SURINAME MAKES ITS MOVE

Nov 23, 2010 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Foreign policy planning, and particularly its articulation, has never been one of the strengths of PPP Governments in Guyana. The former leftist party has both in and out of government clearly understood the importance of impact of external forces on the country, but has failed to conceive of approaches that would have facilitated the country’s national interests.
Yet this past week the spotlight has very much been on Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo and Suriname’s President Desi Bouterse who exchanged whistle stop visits to each other’s countries. The visits were unusually low-keyed. What is not going to be inconspicuous is this week’s grand summit in the capital of Guyana, Georgetown, where the President of Guyana hosts his colleagues from the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR).
This week we examine the two developments—the second visit in recent months by the leader of Suriname and the hosting of yet another major summit in Georgetown, an English speaking nation.
Guyana is no doubt keen to take advantage of the spotlight that will be shone on its leadership during this past week.
For the President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, it represents another feather in his cap, having had the unequalled privilege of chairing more regional groupings than any other of his colleagues in the Caribbean. But then again he has been around far longer than any of them.
But what does membership and Chairmanship of UNASUR mean for Guyana? Well virtually nothing. UNASUR is still in its formative stage. It is an extremely small grouping that is not widely recognised. Hopefully, at this week’s summit, attempts will be made to examine the future of the grouping and possibly spotlight some of the potential candidates for the position of General Secretary.
Guyana is clearly supporting one of the potential candidates from Brazil and may even during the summit use the opportunity to push his candidacy with some form of symbolic gesture.
In hyping the summit, the government has resurrected once again the worn rhetoric about Guyana’s South American heritage. Guyana has no such heritage part from the fact that it is part of the continent and shares a history of colonisation with the rest of South America. But South America was colonised mainly by the Portuguese and Spain while Guyana’s colonial history saw mainly Dutch and British occupation.
With barriers of language and considering the smallness of Guyana’s economy, Guyana can hardly expect to benefit significantly from this grouping at this time. This reality effectively dismisses the notion being telegraphed from Georgetown that Guyana will eventually reduce its dependence on the West and deepen ties with South America.
Deepen ties with the rest of Latin America is not a problem. Guyana’s trade and economic relations with the region is not significant. Yet Guyana has strayed as far as Kuwait and Norway, eyeing those countries Sovereign Wealth Funds as a source of investments rather than tapping in to the enormous potential that exists within South America.
Language and distance can no longer be used as credible constraints to deepening ties and encouraging investments with South America. Suriname no doubt recognises this and sees Guyana as an important bridgehead in pushing for wider integration, as it too realises that it can no longer rely on its traditional markets.
The difference between Guyana and Suriname is that the government of the latter has a plan and is advancing that plan. Guyana which for decades boasted about its strategic geographic advantage in linking South America with the West has failed to do anything about advancing this notion. So far there has been only token recognition of the need to deepen relations with South America.
Guyana has done very little to forward its own strategic interests with the rest of Latin America. The Takutu Bridge is more about Brazil’s interest in developing its northern region than it is about benefiting Guyana, which continues to procrastinate on the issue of an all weather road between Brazil and Lethem. Guyana has no detailed plan and therefore will be left behind.
Suriname on the other hand is obviously serious about integration and its President has demonstrated that he means business and intends to get down to fostering greater integration. Suriname for both political and economic reasons, desires to break out of its isolation, and Guyana is a useful bridgehead to allow it to do that.
Guyana must therefore not be blinded by the idea of a bridge across the Corentyne River. That is another ten years in the making if it ever happens.
What Guyana should be more concerned about is its overall lethargy is advancing its integration with South America, now that Suriname is demonstrating its seriousness towards integration. Guyana may be missing something here. And in terms of long-term economic benefits, this could be very costly.