Surely, the US Embassy in Guyana can’t be that silly

Jan 21, 2014 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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The Government wants the democracy project executed by the US Embassy to be stopped until both sides negotiate the contents. What are the risks in the US Embassy accepting such an agreement? Actually there is only one risk. If the US Embassy agrees, Guyana will not see the implementation of the project.
Surely, the US Embassy has research staff that write analyses for the Ambassador on the political and sociological trends in the host country. The role of an ambassador is to study the nature of the country he/she is posted to, thereby guiding his home government on policies towards that particular territory. That has been one of the requirements of diplomacy since ancient times. The Wikileaks cables show the extent to which the US finds some governments questionable in their conduct of politics, for example the Russian system.
One of the key strategies of the PPP leadership is to begin negotiations and then drag it out. Then momentum is lost, time passes on, and nothing at all is concretized. When in February 2012, UG went on strike, the Ministry of Education met with the union leaders in what was to be a monthly session to look at new directions at UG. That was the only meeting. 2012 has passed into history.
In the same 2012, Linden rose up and negotiations began with the highest level of players in the government. 2012 has passed into history. We are now into 2014 and none of the agreements reached during those intense exchanges have been actualized. The Government has now informed Linden that it cannot go through with the television licence because there is a court case. How foolish this argument is, but the government gets away with its truculence. The permit cannot be awarded because some media owners have taken the Government to court challenging the granting of licences by Mr. Jagdeo to certain applicants only as he was about to demit office. Successful applicants included the PPP itself, Dr. Bobby Ramroop’s outfit and Channel 69, among others.
Commonsense would tell any human that if because of the court case the licences have to be on hold then the status quo should be reverted to before Jagdeo made his give-away. In other words, Linden’s application will be put on hold and so should be those that received them. But only Linden is without its right to transmit.
Is the US Embassy willing to take the risk in halting the project until discussions are concluded? Here is what the PPP leadership will do. The Government’s point persons will be Roger Luncheon, Gail Teixeira, Odinga Lumumba, Robeson Benn and Irfaan Ally, among others. After the first day of agreed modalities, a follow-up meeting will be impossible.
First, Luncheon couldn’t make it and no decision could be arrived at without him being there. Then this pattern is repeated with Teixeira. Then the Ministers are busy with Mashramani, so meetings will have to wait for March by which time the Government has to attend Phagwah ceremonies. In April, the long Easter holiday plus the busy schedule of the Ministers will stretch the talks to May by which time preparations for Independence celebrations are underway. In June, both Luncheon and Teixeira are overseas and since they comprise the real cream of the Government’s delegation, Lumumba, Benn and Ally cannot proceed without them.
By the time we reach July, the Government is bogged down with sensitivities, complexities and inanities involving preparations for the Local Government polls. The rest of 2014 is a bad period for the PPP leadership because of election campaigns for local government. We come to 2015. Another meeting is held, but nothing substantial emerges, and there will have to be further discussions. But key members cannot make the scheduled arrangements.
By this time in 2015, general elections are on the horizon, but in any case, huge parts of the project are now irrelevant because Local Government polls are already held and the voter education exercise did not take place. Parliament by this time is no longer in possession to receive the benefits of the US assistance. By the time Guyana gets into election overdrive, the democracy project would have died a natural death.
My advice to the US Embassy is not to do it. Go ahead with the project. Sadly, the Speaker of Parliament put his foot in his mouth by suggesting talks should be pursued. Parliament itself can negotiate with the US Embassy for the implementation of those aspects that are beneficial to the House, without waiting for the Government to meet with the Ambassador. Unless the Speaker feels that the Parliament is subordinate to the Executive.

 

 

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