“Pragmatism or Punishment: Bisram’s Case for Obedience Dressed as Strategy”

Mar 06, 2026 Letters

Dear Editor,

Vishnu Bisram’s defense of Guyana’s endorsement of Washington’s foreign interventions is not realism — it is rationalised submission, cloaked in the language of pragmatism. His apologia for President Ali’s compliance with an increasingly unilateral United States is a textbook example of how dependency is often dressed up as strategic foresight. When he describes deference to Trump as “pragmatic,” he confuses the necessity to navigate power with the uncritical acceptance of coercion.

Bisram’s worldview, unbothered by the erosion of global norms, implies that small nations have no moral agency — that Guyana’s only viable course is to “support Trump or face the consequences.” That sentiment betrays a deep misunderstanding of the nature of U.S. power. The instruments of subjugation are not new; they merely evolve with the times. Today they take the form of tariff leverage and trade dependency, visa restrictions masquerading as immigration policy, and extraterritorial sanctions that weaponise the global financial system. Under these pillars of control, compliance is not rewarded; it is managed.

The spectacle of Caribbean leaders summoned to Mar‑a‑Lago under the guise of strategic engagement illustrates this imbalance perfectly.

For all the pomp, none of them leave any richer — materially or diplomatically. They are fed photographs, not partnerships; proximity, not parity. The invitation is not a seat at the table but a test of obedience. And Trump, a man who once mused about expanding America’s borders to include “loyal” neighbours, reads such eagerness not as alliance but as vulnerability. To him, the willing are weak, and the meek are expendable.

Bisram romanticises this transactional posture as if it were shrewd statecraft, but it is in fact dependency by design. He invokes the Monroe Doctrine, as if our region were bound to live permanently under its shadow. Yet Guyana’s history tells another story — one of struggle against precisely this kind of paternalistic dominance. To misinterpret submission as survival is to desecrate that legacy. Our forebears did not resist colonial authority only for their descendants to celebrate new forms of tutelage camouflaged in diplomatic niceties.

True pragmatism is not to echo Washington’s every word but to defend Guyana’s interests with discernment, building alliances across multiple poles of global power. We must stop mistaking proximity to power for possession of it. The U.S. does not bestow equality; it negotiates utility. And when that utility expires, so does its indulgence. CARICOM should be confronting this climate collectively, crafting a regional doctrine that protects small states from transactional bullying. Instead, the region has allowed itself to be fragmented — picked off one by one with invitations and inducements, often trading long‑term autonomy for short‑term comfort. It is a tragic irony that Bisram, himself a product of colonial displacement, has chosen to find security not in self‑assertion but in servitude.

Trump’s foreign policy is not a rupture with American tradition, but its most unvarnished expression — an imperial instinct stripped of pretense. To champion his methods as pragmatic is to mistake the predator’s patience for generosity.

Guyana deserves a foreign policy that matches its dignity, not one that trades it for the illusion of favor. If Bisram’s brand of pragmatism is the price of protection, then our sovereignty has already been sold — not to survive, but to serve.

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