Pacification and assuaging the Western countries must be viewed as too little, too late

Jun 30, 2020 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,

Recent revelations in sections of the media have demonstrated that all is not well in the de facto coalition administration.
In the midst of the de facto administration’s attempt to steal an election by any means possible, and, on the eve of the public hearing at the International Court of Justice in the case concerning the 1899 Arbitral Award (Guyana vs Venezuela), de facto Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo took it upon himself to go public, firing as it were, on all cylinders on sensitive foreign policy matters not realizing that his casus belli would be a colossal error of judgement.
According to Nagamootoo; “Guyana has been used as collateral damage in an obsession to effect regime change in a neighbouring country”. He went on to say; “You have foreign powers using us as a pawn in a geo-strategic game that they have mapped out in their own interest.”
And as though that was not enough, Nagamootoo continued; “It may be good to serve their geo-political interest but that does not give them a right to interfere in our internal affairs to such an extent that they have created a problem and they have tried to influence the outcome of these elections.”
Nagamootoo’s claim is spurious. In effect, without recognizing it, and by his own admission, he asserts that his de facto coalition administration is comfortable with the modus vivendi it has established with a regime that is anathema to the western powers.
Advancing a questionable intellectual assumption and a psychological predisposition typical of an émigré from the PPP, the Prime Minister claims that the US administration wants the APNU+ AFC out of the way, replacing it with a PPP/C Government which will be used as a proxy to get rid of the Maduro regime.
This was clearly a misguided, untimely and unwarranted attack on the Western countries more particularly, the United States.
The tone and content of Nagamootoo’s statements are reminiscent of the Cold War era, a period in which he was imbibed with Marxist milk and where he forged his overweening ambition.
In defiance of any rational explanation, the lame duck Prime Minister, based on what he said, views every statement by the Western powers in respect to Guyana as a threat to be countered.
Mr. Nagamootoo fails to recognize that in the case of Guyana, the Western countries are not seeking to replace a democratically elected government and to install an authoritarian regime, it is the other way around.
As a refugee from the PPP to the welcoming embrace of the PNC, Nagamootoo became susceptible to the kindred belief that when the chips are down the best defense is to attack.
His approach is totally out of sync with international comity in an era characterized by radical transformations in international relations.
But Nagamootoo is not alone in committing this colossal error. He is part of the unholy family who, within recent times, has displayed ignorance of the practice that diplomacy is, as the experts put it; ‘A communication process between political entities.’
In that regard, it is not so much the messenger as it is the message.
Apart from the recent xenophobic attacks on distinguished CARICOM leaders, we are now being fed the contemptuous perfidy that; “Guyana is not a colony of CARICOM, or any global or hemispheric body.”
Enter the de facto President.
No doubt, taking advice from Bart Fisher, of the lobbying firm, JJ&B LLC, Mr. Granger jumps in, attempting to placate the Western powers.
Coming in the wake of a strong statement by US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, calling on Granger to “concede defeat and to begin the democratic transition of power,” and fully aware of the impending case of the Guyana vs Venezuela border controversy at the ICJ to which the US government has publicly declared its recognition of Essequibo as an integral part of Guyana’s national territory, Mr. Granger engages in self-serving double talk to wriggle out of the messy situation in which he has found himself thanks to his Prime Minister and more recently, his Campaign Manager.
Contrary to the feral blasts aimed at the western countries by his Prime Minister Mr. Granger’s message to them was one of appeasement.
In an interview, Mr. Granger was forced to backpedal and to; “Reaffirm Guyana’s commitment to Western Hemispheric values and to the furtherance of mutual goals and ideas.”
The de facto President pleaded saying; “The United States is a friend and has worked closely with Guyana over several decades…”
He went on to say that; “Guyana’s strategic interests in the Western Hemisphere were not in jeopardy…”
Mr. Granger’s effort at pacification and assuaging the Western countries must be viewed as too little, too late.
The damage was already done in light of his coalition’s vitriolic attacks on the United States and Canada, and leading public figures in both hemispheric states as well as the Organization of American States, the premier inter-governmental organization in the Western Hemisphere.
Mr. Granger must realize that in his dealings with others he cannot approbate and reprobate.
Guyana is a signatory to the Inter-American Democratic Charter. The government of the day is obligated to honour the Charter to the hilt.

Yours faithfully,
Clement J. Rohee

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