How dare you, Mr. Jagdeo? Watch and learn.

Feb 04, 2018 AFC Column, Features / Columnists

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Despite all the big talk from Bharrat Jagdeo, he can now sit back, relax, and look on as a super-nationalist, patriotic government deals with the cankerous Guyana-Venezuela border issue.
And it is not being done in the manner that he and his highly corrupt, discredited, pre-2015 administration had planned to handle it, not in the least.
Jagdeo, now warming the opposition benches and likely to do so for several elections after 2020, had the gall and the bold face to tell this nation that he had seriously considered surrendering parts of Guyana’s land and sea space to Venezuela “just to ease the pressure” on his government and appease the land-hungry Venezuelans.
The most hurtful part of this scenario is that not one single Guyanese Head of State or Government, past or present, had ever uttered words to that effect. Never! Just the thought raises the hairs on your neck. Give away land to Venezuela, a country that is 100 times larger than Guyana? How dare you, Mr. Jagdeo?
We do hope that you are paying close attention, or as the young folks are wont to say, ‘watching the ride’, as the matter now heads to the International Court of Justice for a final resolution.
Led by a highly patriotic President, H.E. David Granger, the governing Coalition considers it as heresy for anyone, much less a former President of this Republic, to even consider giving up a single blade of grass to Venezuela, and by doing so, encouraging that country to keep up its illegal, spurious, fabricated and downright ornery claim to territory that is ours.
Here is what Mr. Jagdeo was quoted as saying back in 2015, and in recent weeks, and he insists on maintaining his highly absurd position. He said:
“There were other options that involved a negotiated settlement which did not see any land concessions that the 1899 award would remain intact. You could probably on the maritime area, give Venezuela a channel out to the sea. So you make a slight concession in the maritime area but ensure that you do not concede any territory that is land-based.”
It is alleged that the Venezuelans’ high payments to Jagdeo’s regime for rice (higher than world market prices) had political undertones. Remember that Guyana was originally left out of Venezuela’s Petro Caribe oil deal when it was first introduced to the rest of the Caribbean. But little did he know that Venezuela’s intentions for Guyana were dark, not above board. Love had nothing to do with it, to turn an adroit phrase from Tina Turner.
Luckily for Guyana, the Maker intervened and then He blessed the nation with the 2015 general elections that brought us leaders with names like David, Moses and Joseph to rescue the country from the greedy, clutching hands of the Jagdeoites. The people spoke with their inked fingers and got the PPP out of office.
From the very first day after the new Cabinet was selected, its members identified as the first order of ‘Business” the settlement of Venezuela’s spurious claim to Guyana’s territory. Not one person even considered ceding any sea or land space to Venezuela.
This Government expressed its position from Day One that this matter had to be adjudicated and resolved at the highest level, the World Court, because of Venezuela’s spite and very bad intentions. Foreign Minister Carl Greenidge could tell us how tense the talks involving UN Mediator Dag Nylander were, even him receiving proposals from various “quarters” for Guyana to find some means of appeasing Venezuela. Guyana’s delegation stood firm and insisted that the mediated talks had been a waste of time, resources, energy, money, and an assault on our national sensibilities for decades.
We must also keep remembering that Jagdeo publicly stated (recently) that he has withdrawn his party’s support from the National Border Commission. Again, he provides us with reasons to question his nationalism, his patriotism.
Which politician worth his/her salt and good name would choose to abandon his party’s historical contributions and obligations towards ensuring the sanctity and integrity of our territories? But it’s Jagdeo we’re talking about here.
A Stabroek News editorial on November 1, 2015, wasted no time taking him to task for even considering ceding Guyanese sea space to Venezuela. The Editor’s quote follows:-
“It is interesting that Mr Jagdeo did not specify precisely where in the area of the Orinoco the terminal point of the maritime boundary would be in this scenario. The terminus of the land border is Punta Playa, and any maritime boundary, therefore, should take that as its starting point. Since the former head of state was not forthcoming in this regard, one is left to wonder whether his government was toying with the idea of ceding a strip of territory as well in order to create this “channel”. Venezuela’s agitation for a concessionary strip for the purposes of what was claimed was access to the sea from the Orinoco, goes back at least as far as the 1970s and the days of President Carlos Andrés Pérez, who said that this would settle the issue. Then Prime Minister Forbes Burnham was not persuaded. In fact he coined a term for the consequences it would produce, labelling it the “salami effect,” since, after Venezuela had taken one slice, she would be back for more.”
So Mr. Jagdeo, the Coalition will show you how to deal with bullies, and how to separate your personal mendicancy and your penchant for quick fixes from the needs of a nation. Not one blade of grass. Watch and learn.

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