H@Rd Truths By GHK Lall – Relationships – An Ugly American Record

Jul 11, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – I notice Guyanese awed by our distinguished American visitor from State.  Sorry, unlike US Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, I don’t bow; unlike Clive Lloyd – I neither kneel nor curtsy.

Now there has been much mileage made of US Secretary of State, Mr. Anthony Blinken’s official visit to Guyana. My recollection is that this is the first peacetime presence of such a high American official to this flawed, fatal shore.  Mike Pompeo’s was in the battlefield traumas of national elections, so that has less gloss, when compared to Mr. Blinken’s recent arrival.  Unsurprisingly, PPP tub thumpers took to the terraces to herald Mr. Blinken’s visit, and how much it is a testimony to what government leaders have done to foster and strengthen the Guyana-US relationship.  I give them a large hand for their efforts, plus another to ease their nuanced ignorance about American relationships.

America pushes around small nations, move leaders and political groups about in the manner of pawns and puppets.  Guyana could be Exhibit Number 1, given our history of self-determination, with the most glaring component being that there is nothing about self in it.  American self-interests, vital interests, strategic interests, among other interests, command and compel how things are going to be, with Guyana as poster boy.  In a thimble, it has been the tragic story of this country from Jagan to Burnham to Hoyte to back to Jagan (reborn) to Jagdeo/Ramotar to Granger and the latest being back to Jagdeo/Ali.  Look at how they have been moved, put in a groove, until it is time to reprove.  Any Guyanese, high or low, insider or outsider, who disagrees has the choice of sniping from dark alleys or the back galleries.  I stand unmovingly: Guyana has been a toy to American manipulations and monstrosities.  Sixty years later, the scars will ooze bloody memory, racial and racist putridity.

Stepping into the wider world, when America sets it roving eye on the prospects of less powerful nations, it moves with speed and skill.  Checkout Iran, and how a despot was protected for decades because of oil, lesser geo-strategic visions.  Come back to this side of the world, and observe how Mexico has been dwarfed into a midget (decide which is lower) and dominated by its gigantic neighbor.  Come closer, and there is Chile.  If America could tie bundle with a mass murderer and criminal like Pinochet for its ideological interests, then it can partner with any political autocrat or assassin, any foul felon, such as a Noriega of Panama, to achieve its nefarious ends.

I use this small sampling to convey and emphasize to my fellow Guyanese, how my fellow Americans, have been wastrels and miscreants of the lowest sort.  I shouldn’t have to return to Guyana to point to PPP heavy breathers that this self-congratulating propaganda about how much it has done, or which direction it has not gone towards, so as to maintain the Guyana-US relationship has its holes.  It is not of what the PPP delivered, but how America could obtain same or more from anybody.  It could have been the PNC doing similarly.  It could have been a monkey in an evening gown, or a porcupine in pajamas.  There would be people cheering everywhere to say how those dumb beasts (apologies to animal sensitivity activists, and animals) did so much that made so many in America happy with the relationship.  And, so, Secretary Anthony stands as majestic testimony to the potency of the relationship.

Since energy security has been beaten to a pulp, it is sidelined today.  Nevertheless, the alpha and omega of this one-sided Guyana-US handshake is that the PPP has bent over backwards, with Guyanese abandoned to their own devices, to appease American expectations, American calculations, and American conditions.  Indeed, ‘appease’ has taken on a pitiful presence since Chamberlain and Munich, but this is the reality in this dismal swamp, so that PPP leaders find favor and stay in power.  They play the fool, or try to fiddle around with sacred, binding contracts, and it is the door for them.  Play the game, or suffer the same shame as Jagan, Burnham, Hoyte, Jagdeo once, Granger next, and possibly Jagdeo twice. Though he bends over, his naked anatomy still shows.  America looks on with fascination.

Mr. Blinken came here for security, which is about oil, and then more concerning that same oil.  American security (and corporate prosperity) is inextricably linked to stability in Guyana, and the reality is that there are some mighty unhappy people in this country currently.  To give a clue, Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton had his own little powwow with the man from by the Potomac, plus a loaded dossier of all that could be upsetting to American equilibrium.  Among other things, it is the same transparency and inclusivity that the same Anthony Blinken lectured President Ali and VP Jagdeo about when he had them hauled to DC.  How could Guyanese with any quality of character forget, or pretend to forget, that development?  Moreover, how can any Guyanese, especially PPP uneasy, not remember the Chinese, and American anxiety over their massive footprint here.  Two superpowers in the same oil kitchen are a symphony for the clumsy.

To summarize, Secretary Blinken didn’t come here because of PPP doings, he came in spite of them.

(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.)

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• Clive Lloyd, GHK Lall, H@rd Truths, record, relationships

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