‘Biden, Harris and Guyana’

Jul 29, 2024 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Kaieteur News – Leading is only one aspect of leadership: in the political arena ensuring that your constituency is most adequately led is as if not more, important.

US President Joe Biden portrayed this broader notion of leadership a few days ago when he accepted that his health had visibly deteriorated to a point where if he did not resign the immediate and possible future wellbeing of the American and other peoples may be put in jeopardy and so endorsed his Vice-President Kamala Harris to be his successor.

Biden has had an exceptionally successful presidency and deserved a second term and praise of his achievements has come from many quarters and was briefly outlined by his predecessor, President Barak Obama, as follows: ‘He helped end the pandemic, created millions of jobs, lowered the cost of prescription drugs, passed the first major piece of gun safety legislation in 30 years, made the biggest investment to address climate change in history, and fought to ensure the rights of working people to organize for fair wages and benefits. Internationally, he restored America’s standing in the world, revitalized NATO, and mobilized the world to stand up against Russian aggression in Ukraine.’

Biden said that he will spend the remaining few months of this presidency fulfilling his presidential agenda, but as matters presently stand, it appears that VP Harris must now confront a few thorny electoral problems, such as the national immigrant/border issue and the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza. But Biden’s choice appears to be sound for Harris has already raised significant financing and received sufficient support from delegates to the forthcoming Congress of the Democratic party to make her nomination as the party’s presidential candidate at the November 2024 elections a mere formality. Furthermore, the outcome of her recent discourse with the Israeli prime minister indicates that although she is aware of the complicated nature of the US/Israeli problem, she is also weary of the atrocities Israel is perpetrating on the Palestinians.

The Biden administration has taken a keen interest in the socio/political development of Guyana, and this is of great importance to Guyanese. Indeed, the governance problem in Guyana, which is not dissimilar to that which Biden faces in Israel where the Zionists and Palestinians are unable to compromise on the governance of the political space. Also, in 1980, Joe Biden was one of group of senators who lobbied for greater US diplomatic involvement in the Northern Ireland conflict, which was even more politically similar to Guyana. Biden used his seat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to help pressure the Clinton administration to commit resources to broker the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, which brought an end to the confrontation between Protestants and Catholics in which some 3,700 lives had been lost.

Joe Biden has; therefore, an in-depth knowledge of Guyana-type political issues and one must hope that he uses a portion of the remaining time of his presidency to entrench this legacy as it relates to Guyana. The autocratic oligarchy of the PPP is hoping that the Republicans take government in the US and reverse the policies of the present Democratic administration. But to be properly handled, Guyana-type problems that contravene elections cycles, usually require a bipartisan approach that takes a long view of the problem.

Thus, notwithstanding the international uproar and the Biden administration’s expressed frustration with the policy of the Israeli government in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just addressed joint session of Congress, albeit with depleted attendance. US bipartisanship was also demonstrated in Northern Ireland: after the presidency of Democratic President Bill Clinton, Republican President George W Bush pursued the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, and when problems arose, a special envoy from the Donald Trump administration was dispatched to warn against any British exit from the European Union that might endanger the Agreement.

Note too that for whatever reason it was the West, led by the Donald Trump’s administration, that engineered the removal of the APNU+AFC coalition government in 2020. It was also under the Trump administration that the USAID 2021 Report, which called upon the government and the political elites to end the winner-takes-all system and introduce a more inclusive government, was commissioned. Upon coming to government, in 2021, the Biden administration maintained this demand.

The Western interest and understanding of what is taking place in Guyana has been long standing. During the 10^th anniversary celebration of the 1998Good Friday Agreement, the British government, believing that it would be good for Guyanese politicians to observe that their kind of political difficulties can be solved if only the political will existed, financed a parliamentary delegation to attend that event. But their attendance bore no fruit and did not even lead to a substantial public discourse on the issue.

Nevertheless, the institutional memory of the US and the West in general has taught that finding an equitable solution with entrenched opposing political elites is not easy. In a situation much simpler than Palestine, once the parties in Northern Ireland decided to negotiate, it still took former US Senator George Mitchell almost 2 years to complete the process, and it almost ended in failure. Indeed, it concluded without the support of one of the strongest protestant political groups. The Democratic Unionist Party of the Rev. Ian Paisley stood out against it, but ultimately decided to continue its opposition ‘from within the Agreement’.

Vice-President Kamala Harris was the point person when Guyana’s president and vice-president were ‘invited’ to Washington in 2022 for a dressing down, and she encouraged Dr. Ali to establish more inclusive, equitable, governance. Unfortunately, it appears that the Guyana delegation has interpreted this to mean that it should more blatantly use state resources, to destroy African institutions to force their adherence! The Biden administration has continued to cajole the regime in the direction of good governance and inclusivity; from forcing some rethink of public service pay to visibly indicating where corruption and mismanagement are located. The PPP’s current meanderings about there being no ‘snap elections’ and the creation of a new voters list that was recommended by the European Union observer mission and the Caricom recount team after the 2020 elections, appear to fall under this rubric.

‘At the heart of the new era of geopolitical competition is a struggle over the role and influence of democracy in the international order’ (Foreign Affairs Magazine June 2021).Regardless of the autocratic tendencies the PPP may have detected in Trump’s behaviour, this competition will not be going away and will continue to resonate in one’s neighbourhood. Those who require positive change in Guyana must not squander the current opportunities. They must mobilise to ensure that the outcomes of the present context -existing support regimes, constitutional and electoral reforms processes, etc. -result ina fundamentally positive change to the way in which Guyanese are governed. A June 2021 Foreign Affairs article ‘The Emerging Biden Doctrine’ argues that the doctrine ‘focuses the United States on a truly grand strategy of fortifying the democratic world against the most serious set of threats it has confronted in generations.’  Coming to the end of President Donald Trump’s term, in February 2019 Brookings published an article that contextualized this point of view well. ‘At the heart of the new era of geopolitical competition is a struggle over the role and influence of democracy in the international order.

Sincerely,

Dr. Henry Jeffrey

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• Biden, Guyana, harris, Letters

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