GUYANA AND SURINAME TOWARD RECOGNIZING COMMON IDENTITY

Dec 06, 2020 Consumer Concerns, News

CONSUMER CONCERNS…

By Pat Dial

Kaieteur News – The official contacts between the governments of Suriname and Guyana have been featuring in the news over the last several weeks. These contacts, neglected over the years, have been long overdue. Adventitiously, and almost simultaneously, Guyana and Suriname have had new Presidents who are perceived by the people of both countries as not belonging to “old guard politicians” and will bring fresh minds to the tasks of governance and Guyana-Suriname relations. Accordingly, and quite unexpectedly, when President Chandrikapersad Santokhi visited Guyana for the Presidential inauguration of Dr. Irfaan Ali, substantial talks between the Presidents on the strengthening of Guyana-Suriname relations occurred. This occurrence was unique since serious Diplomatic business is rarely discussed at Presidential inaugurations.
Guyana and Suriname had been one country longer than they had been two. Guyana became separated from Suriname in 1815 when the Dutch ceded it to the British. Now, being ruled by different colonial powers, the myth was cultivated and projected that they were different countries. In fact, Guyana and Suriname have remained much the same country.
The thought process of the people, the population, the culture and the food are much the same. The lingua franca of Suriname, Sranam Tongo once known as ‘Talkie-talkie’, is an English creole and Guyanese are able to learn and speak it fluently after living in Suriname for six months. Further, since English and Dutch are cognate languages and the Suriname Education System prescribes English as a compulsory language, most Surinamese speak or understand English. All the Guyana archival records to the end of the 18th century are in Dutch and Guyana continued to use the Civil Law, the same Law as Suriname, until 1914. Indeed, the Land Law of Guyana is still largely Roman-Dutch. The land surveys done by Dutch surveyors are still in use and most of the official names of the estates and villages along coastal and riverine areas Guyana are Dutch. From Colonial times, Guyanese had been schooled in the illusion that Guyana was closer to the English-speaking Caribbean islands than to Suriname; now the mist of that illusion is beginning to dissipate.
The recent commitment of Guyana and Suriname to have closer diplomatic and cultural relations is leading to the discovery of their common identity and identical interests. Cultural cooperation would in due course be stressed and there are many cultural facets which Guyana could learn from Suriname such as its language policy and its successful pluralist policies.
Guyana and Suriname have established several institutions to quicken and further closer cooperation such as the Strategic and Cooperation Platform and the Guyana-Suriname Business Facilitation Unit to manage and facilitate collaboration between the private sector bodies and the Joint Guyana-Suriname Commission to work towards solving the New River Border problem.
The immediate project on which both countries are focusing is the construction of a bridge across the Corentyne River and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Foreign Minister of Guyana, Hon. Hugh Todd and Suriname’s experienced and brilliant Foreign Minister, Hon. Dr. Albert Ramdin. Both Presidents Ali and Santokhi were sanguine as to the benefits the bridge will bring to their countries.
President Ali remarked that the bridge will be a permanent physical link between the people of Suriname and Guyana and there would accrue enormous benefits in Tourism, Transportation and Trade. In his own words: . . . “The proposed road alignment will create within its vicinity possibilities of Free Trade zones and enhanced land values, and will not only reduce the cost of doing business but improve the ease of doing business.” President Santokhi was equally sanguine: “The bridge over the Corentyne River is not only important to facilitate the movement of persons, trade, goods and cross-border cooperation but it also symbolizes the progress to a new era where there is wellbeing and prosperity of the people, Democracy and Rule of Law.”
Though the construction of the bridge is the immediate flagship project, other areas of cooperation and development will continue simultaneously such as, for example, the Oil Industry where there will be cooperation rather than competition to the benefit of both countries.
The present close and enthusiastic cooperation and goodwill between Guyana and Suriname removes the veil concealing their common identity and stands out as among the most important foreign policy achievements since Independence.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)