EVERY COUNTRY PROTECTS ITS INTERESTS

Sep 04, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

WikiLeaks is an unnecessary distraction at this time. It will only serve to divert attention to issues that have long been in the public domain and which were sensationalized prior to the 2006 elections, and which did not affect the outcome of those elections in so far as the opposition parties were concerned.
If anything, the wholesale release of non-redacted cables that leaks occurred this past week only strengthens the government’s hands and confirms some of the things that it has longed claimed, including the fact that these cables amount nothing more than diplomatic hearsay and that the credibility of the cables depends to a great extent on the credibility of those feeding the information trough at the US Embassy in Georgetown.
The United States of America has its security interests in Guyana. The United States of America like any other country is seeking to preserve and advance its own interests. That country should not be faulted for doing this. In protecting its interests, it would ideally wish to ensure that certain persons are in the right positions so that it can obtain its intelligence information.
The United States provides training to persons in the hope that those persons if they ever should attain positions of power in a country would be more understanding towards the concerns of their country.
The United States would like to ensure that it has persons in influential positions that would be able to provide them with the sort of support they need. They are not looking to have persons hostile to their interests, and so they will do whatever is within their means to ensure that the persons they like are in the right places. This does not only happen in Guyana; it happens all over the world and therefore the United States should not be blamed for any action they take in pursuit of their interests.
At the same time, Guyana does not have to bow to every demand of the United States. They are a powerful nation and they have their clout but any country worth its independence would not easily succumb to foreign pressure.
And there are many ways in which this pressure is applied. The United States cannot go out and undertake certain activities in the country. It cannot for example walk into a local ministry and demand information, and so it seeks out sources. Some of these sources have their own agenda. Some of them like the late George Bacchus are creative story tellers; they make up all manner of tales and they tell it to curry favour with Uncle Sam.
What the US transmits therefore overseas is based upon hearsay. They learn of the death of someone, and they talk to someone, that person gives them theory one; they talk to someone else, they get theory two; yet another person offers information and a third theory arrives. All of that has to be transmitted because this is how national intelligence is built. Those little scraps of hearsay may one day become useful for some other purpose.
The US diplomats have their work to do and they do it. They are required to report on important developments that can have a bearing on either US assistance to Guyana or US national security interests and so they will report what they have learnt. You are not going to find any US cable about some road accident unless the embassy feels that the roads have become so unsafe that their citizens should be advised to exercise caution when using the roadways in Guyana. So it is always about the United States’ interests.
Guyana must worry less about US interests and try to worry more about its own interests. So it’s no use being detained or being worried about what was said in any cables. Anything can be said. The more important thing is to act in Guyana’s own interest.
Understandably, there are persons in Guyana who in this election season are looking for some form of political ammunition to gain traction with the population. But WikiLeaks is not the way to go, because all of those issues that are now being sensationalized were dealt with before in the run-up to the 2006 elections and got nowhere.
As such, WikiLeaks is of little political value at the moment. The main issue now is the use of public funds, the transparency in which these funds are deployed, how contracts are awarded and more importantly, how state properties and land are being disposed of.
Those are the burning issues. The United States wanted Roger Khan and they got him. In fact they even got his lawyer. That file is closed as far as they are concerned. They are now going after ‘Dudus’ Coke.

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