Is Guyana on a trajectory towards a petrodollar-fueled autocracy?

Jan 20, 2024 Letters

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Dear Editor,

I would like to draw the attention of the readership of your esteemed newspaper to a recent opinion piece entitled “The Jagdeo Doctrine of 2023”. It was penned by Dr. Randy Persaud, Professor Emeritus, and was published in Demerara Waves on December 31, 2023. To be frank and blunt, I have rarely read such a sycophantic pamphlet praising a country’s de facto leader, certainly not in any country that considers itself a liberal democracy. These types of opinion pieces are typically pushed in autocratic systems, where paid and unpaid sycophants pay homage to the infallible ruler. Are these types of pamphlets an indication that Guyana is on the path towards a petrodollar-fueled autocracy?

Let me provide some background for your readers. Dr. Persaud served as an Associate Professor of International Relations at American University in Washington, DC. He has an academic background in the areas of globalization, human security, foreign policy, and the politics of identity. Now, he works as the Adviser on International Affairs in the Office of the President of Guyana. It is unclear whether he serves on a pro bono basis or whether his services are reimbursed by the Guyanese tax payers.

First, it is telling that the author entitles his piece as “The Jagdeo Doctrine of 2023”. A foreign reader may think that Bharrat Jagdeo is the President of Guyana. He or she will be mistaken. Since 2020 the President is Dr. Mohammed Irfaan Ali, who plays a supporting role in Dr. Persaud’s master piece. Now, I would like to quote a few memorable and telling excerpts from “The Jagdeo Doctrine of 2023”:

“The world knows Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo as a brilliant economist. Even those who do not like his politics acknowledge that the General Secretary of the PPP, who is also the current Vice President, has mastered the intricacies of macro-economic management.”

“Yet, one of Jagdeo’s greatest assets, as well as his most emphatic commitment, has not received the attention it should have. This is his absolute and unshakable dedication to making Guyana a country free of a politics based on racism.”

“A Guyana free of racial animosity is Bharrat Jagdeo’s most sacred and non-negotiable ontological foundation.”

“What Bharrat Jagdeo did, however, was to introduce a simple but seminal idea, namely, that to deepen democracy, the PPP must broaden its base.”

“A doctrine is a coherent set of ideas, principles, norms, and expectations that frames the ways in which (in this case) a political party thinks about things, about its fundamental values and commitments, and about its core objectives, about its conduct, both public and private.”

Successful democracies thrive by fostering diversity and the peaceful competition of different political ideas represented by political parties and civil society. No single party holds the keys to prosperity and wellbeing of a nation, or knows what is best for its citizens. Besides living in Guyana during my childhood, I have spent over several decades of my professional life working as an academic and biomedical researcher in liberal democracies, such as Switzerland, Germany and the United States. I have worked at some of the leading research institutions of the West, including the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, University of California, Harvard Medical School, ETH Zurich and the University of Munich.

However, I have never come across such a clumsy and ingratiating propaganda on behalf of a political leader by a respected academic. In Germany, where I currently teach, these types of pamphlets were commonly penned during the rule of the national socialists in the 1930s and 1940s and later after World War II in East Germany, known as the Germany Democratic Republic, under communist rule (1949-1990). In fact, this type of talk does not remind me of the vibrant and inclusive democracy Guyana should be striving for but rather foreshadows the dark autocracy it could be come, if we are not vigilant. The reader just has to replace in the quotes cited above “Jagdeo” with “Putin” or “Xi Jinping”; “Guyana” with “Russia” or “China”; and “PPP” with “United Russia” or “Chinese Communist Party” and then he or she will understand where the roots of this type of talk can be found. Is this the trajectory, fueled by billions of petrodollars, on which Dr. Persaud wants to take Guyana in the future?

Regards,

Andre Brandli, PhD

Professor, University of Munich (LMU), Munich, Germany

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• Andre Brandli, Germany, Munich, PhD, Professor, University of Munich (LMU)

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