H@rd Truths By GHK Lall – Goodbye, Secretary Blinken: Was Nice While The Visit Lasted

Jul 07, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

---

Kaieteur News – America has its expectations, which is why Anthony J. Blinken came here.  Guyana had to have had its conditions to place before him while he was here.

Mr. Blinken had demands, a powerful hand.  Guyana had to be unrelenting; it had, stillhas, the strongest position.  In the aftermath of the visit’s pomp and pageantry, ceremony and excitements, this era of good feeling, some things must be said soberly and clinically.  Some context and lessons from history serve best.

American Secretaries of State must prioritize which countries in the globe are worth their attention and time.  Guyana is neither a competitor with the America, nor is it in any state of tension or conflict with the US.  Friendly and healthy is the public relationship with Big Brother to the north, other than for some grinding differences beneath the surface. So, when Secretary Blinken made Guyana an official destination, he had in mind certain compulsories with America plastered all over them.  Off the table was thawing of relations, restoring of rapport, building trust, or such things requiring recalibrating and reengineering.Those are in place, not threatened.  What the man from Washington wanted was to go home with his wish list (demands) marked ‘done’.  Mission accomplished.

As America got, Guyana should have gotten.  As America wished, wooed, and won, Guyana had to win too.  I read of Mr. Blinken proudly announcing US$5.5 million for regional food security.  If the secretary was going to be about these paltry exercises in American purse parsimony, he should have cut short his visit immediately and left on the next plane to Foggy Bottom.

Though sharp, I avoid the language of Malcolm X or Stokely Carmichael today.  US$5.5 million is not even a starter, and it sounds like some pittance that Exxon would have drilled out and dumped on Guyana.  I believe that the US wants robust energy security, and it pushed the envelope to the limitto achieve that strategic vision.  Further, what David Granger rejected in 2018, that CIA base in the Northwest, had to be back on the table.  I think that neither President Ali nor VP Jagdeo has it in them to say ‘no.’  They owe too much, too much is at stake.  Political power for one, and retaining it.

With oil supplies severely crimped by OPEC+ and Saudi Arabia drifting deliberately away from the American and Western camps, the Southern Crescent of Guyana, Venezuela and Surinametakes on unprecedented vitality and value in US eyes.  I leave out the geo this and geo that, and cut to the quick: GUYANA IS NOW OF SUPREME IMPORTANT TO AMERICA.  If they have a fraction of the smarts that they should have, President Ali and VP Jagdeo had to know this, and had to use it skillfully, boldly, and doggedly.  In a word -leverage.  In another, aces.  We had to get something more, that which embodied what is better for this poor (little richest girl country) in the world.

I should be offended, but won’t be, if any Guyanese were to counter that Exxon is private and corporate and commercial.  Guyanese must get this in their heads: Exxon is America, and America is Exxon.  Why do they think that Mr. Anthony John Blinken, Secretary of State came to this shanty town, this frontier oil town, this capitalist paradise?  We either get real, or we will be reeled in like the helpless fish we are.  We must learn the hard, bitter lessons from the 2016 Exxon contract, from the body of work of departing Ambassador Lynch for American interests, even at the expense of Guyanese ones.  It is because of American interests that Mr. AJ Blinken came here to much fanfare from natives fooled into frenzies by American finery.

I am all for that, with me standing far outside.  But we must get something for all these things that Mr. Blinken had in his bag of demands.  We had to (must) get many things: more favorable terms, more money, more American involvement and pressure on Exxon.  Don’t say that it can’t be done, that one is government, and the other is business.  The business of America is business, and that is not ancient nor any less resonant, relevant.  Now, I tender two lessons from history of how host countries twisted American interests and American arms to their benefit.

Filipino strongman, Ferdinand Marcos, a proven US ally, repeatedly used the strategic Clark Air Base and the gigantic Subic Bay Naval Baseto wring concessions from America. One was money, the other was that he stayed in power.  America yielded, helped.  Pakistan’s General Ayub Khan and General Pervez Musharraf bargained to their country’s favor for abundant American favors, when it was clear that they had a distinct edge.  In the former’s instance, it was an India aligned with the USSR, and in the latter, it was the war on terror.  Any Guyanese who asserts that Guyana cannot get America to squeeze Exxon by the marbles to get it to cry ‘Uncle’ renegotiation of the one-sided contract, either is clueless about the nature and versatility of American power, or is playing the fool.

We just must get more.  Mr. Blinken’s visit was inextricably linked to America’s needs and Exxon’s presence here.  It was in our interests to capitalize on both to the maximum.  America has its vital interests, so does Guyana.  The ways and means should have been found to make the two more compatible than they are, less glaringly one-sided.  If not, then Guyana must cease being the blood bank and oxygen tank of American interests and visions.

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

---

• Anthony J. Blinken, GHK Lall, Goodbye, H@rd Truths, Secretary

---