GDF’s missions

Feb 11, 2013 Editorial

Last Thursday, the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) held its Annual Officers’ Conference at Camp Ayanganna. Organised under the theme “Consolidating and modernising the Guyana Defence Force for total defence”, Chief-of-Staff, Commodore Gary Best declared that it was time for the organisation to ‘define new missions”. He revealed that the GDF had crafted a “strategic defence review” which it had “already submitted to the Defence Board.”
The country’s disciplined forces operate under the ambit of our Defence and Security Policy articulated in Article 197 A of the Constitution. That article states: “The state defence and security policy shall be to defend national independence, preserve the country’s serenity and integrity and guarantee the normal functioning of institution and security of citizens against any harmful aggression.”
More specifically, Section 5 of the Defence Act stipulates: “The Force shall be charged with the defence and maintenance of order in Guyana and with other duties as may from time to time be defined by the Defence Board.” Formed in 1965 at a time when Venezuela was aggressively pursuing in revanchist claims over Essequibo, the GDF’s major focus was to defend Guyana from external aggression. Suriname’s 1969 overt actions to assert its claim over the New River Triangle necessitated an armed response, which solidified that mandate of the GDF.
But in a major reappraisal, which unfortunately failed to elicit any response from our leaders (political or civil), the Chief of Staff, who is scheduled to retire later this year, reportedly declared that present realities now demand a shift from the “conventional construct of territorial defence.” It is within this context that he expatiated on the ‘writing and defining of new missions’ for the GDF.
While we would not disagree with the Commodore on his declaration that the GDF must be equipped and deployed in a more ‘strategic, adaptable and well-coordinated” way, we wished he had expanded on his assessment of our purportedly diminished “territorial” threats. We are not as sanguine as he (or his staff) evidently is on the strategic aims of either Venezuela or Suriname. While the present leftist leaders might seem to be more disposed to place their territorial claims on their back burner, we must appreciate that those claims stir deep passions in the people of those countries. Only recently we had one opposition party in Venezuela accusing President Chavez of ‘going soft’ on their claim over Essequibo.
Rattling of swords against an external ‘enemy’ is a time-honoured avenue for politicians of all stripes and hues to mobilise domestic support at the polls. How many times has this kind of rhetoric not fuelled passions that tripped over into overt hostilities? Commodore Best appears to be leaning very heavily on strategic alliances to protect our territorial interests.
“I have no doubt in my mind that current bilateral military relations with the USA, Brazil, China, Canada, Jamaica and French Guiana continue to provide a sound platform for defence enhancement. In deepening this effort, I therefore believe that it is necessary to establish these and in some cases re-establish military-to-military relations with nations such as Venezuela, Suriname, India and Czech Republic among others.”
In this vein, it might be useful to quote from the Disciplined Forces Report, which was unanimously passed by all parties in Parliament in 2010. “While the Commission recognises that it is in Guyana’s interest to pursue not a military, but a peaceful solution to its border dispute problems, the possibility that Venezuela and Suriname may seek to assert their claims even in a limited way by force of arms cannot be discounted.
“Guyana continues to rely essentially on diplomatic efforts coupled with the forging of strategic relationships based on its interests. But the need for military support of its peaceful efforts has occasionally manifested itself and has brought home the importance of military preparedness and vigilance as part and parcel of its territorial defence efforts.
“As stated by the (then) UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan: “You can do a lot with diplomacy, but, of course, you can do a lot more with diplomacy backed up by firmness and force.”

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GDF’s missions

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