Dear Editor,
In your news item, ‘US plays down Jagdeo’s criticism of Haiti role,’ (January 26), I whole-heartedly agree with the Charge d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Georgetown, Ms Karen Williams, waving off President Bharrat Jagdeo’s recent criticism of the US government’s role in earthquake-ravaged Haiti, which was based on this quoted remark: “I was informed that a delegation comprised of Latin American leaders who were going to visit Haiti and contribute aid to that country faced the objection of the US government and could not make the humanitarian move.”
If my memory serves me well, I think even the Brazilian President, whom President Barack Obama admires, was openly critical of the US role in Haiti. So President Jagdeo’s criticism here is not that isolated that it deserves any sort of special attention, and it also pales in comparison to the more fiery rhetoric that is spewed from the mouths of Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez against America.
But the disconcerting element here for some Guyanese is not the actual criticism, but the country, Iran, in which he chose to make his criticism. Did he utter the criticism because the Haitian crisis simply came up in dialogue or in a more bold and direct way to send a signal to the United States that he and his government are openly siding with Iran against the US? In politics, there are so many dynamics and implications involved when a head of government openly criticizes another government, but more so if the criticism takes place in another country also openly critical of the same country.
To find what really motivated him to make such a seemingly disturbing outburst, I had to reread last Friday’s SN lead story, ‘Jagdeo chides US over Haiti -IRNA.’ Permit me, for discussion purposes, to repeat four of his directly quoted remarks from 1) “Many of the moves of the Americans around the globe are against the norms and merely ensure their own interests.” 2) “Although we live in the vicinity of the United States, we are not agreed with their entire stands, and we do express our dissatisfaction with lots of their policies and viewpoints now and then.” 3) “Today the Americans openly declare that they are concerned about some developing countries’ rapid advancement, such as China, towards becoming developed economic poles, since those countries can leave behind the United States economically in the future.” 4) “There are many countries and nations in the world today that do not seek salvation through attachment to the United States, having chosen other paths.”
Let me quickly say not only has this President joined Cheddi Jagan, Forbes Burnham and Janet Jagan in openly going against the United States, perhaps even at the expense of Guyana-US relations, but I feel inclined to ask: Is he doing this because he is against American foreign policy or is he really doing it as a pretext to a defence in case the US goes after his government in the aftermath of the Roger Khan drug smuggling fiasco in which lots of damaging information surfaced that implicated his government? If so, will he then scream the US is after him because of his political stance?
Now, to his first quoted remark, it is a known fact that as the lone superpower standing, the United States does engage in actions that dovetail with its economic and military interests worldwide, and these actions are not always appreciated by some nations, but while the President’s quoted remarks make him seem bold to some, they may yet be politically risky to Guyana’s relations with the United States for the next two years that President Jagdeo is in office. For the sake of the people of Guyana, civic society leaders with the independent media, need to press him for a careful clarification, because it may yet be that the majority of Guyanese at home and abroad do not share or support his remarks or even the place and time they were made.
I have no qualms with his second statement, but his third statement borders on a falsehood that demands he shows us where the United States, overtly or covertly, manifested any concern about the rapid advancement of developing countries, such as China, becoming developed economic poles resulting in America being left economically behind in the future. I have a solid source, with facts and figures, that says China was facing a catastrophic economic meltdown back in the ’80s and it was the United States, through its corporations, that started outsourcing America manufacturing jobs to China, and thus began China’s Cinderella story. America may owe China billions of dollars today, but China owes America a huge debt of gratitude dating back to the ’80s or China would have made Haiti’s catastrophe seem like child’s play with sand castles being washed away.
To his last quoted statement, it is true that many countries today do not seek (economic) salvation through attachment to the United States, but where is the shame in this man’s heart for making such a puerile statement? He knows that as far as Guyana is concerned, for the last 17 years of the PPP’s reign, 10 of which were on his watch, the United States was the main source of Guyana’s economic salvation with US-backed WB loan forgiveness and write-offs, fresh foreign grants and loans, annual remittances of almost US$500 million from the US, and in a back-handed sense, profits from illicit drug smuggling from Guyana to the United States.
In a separate SN article on January 21, ‘Jagdeo meets Iranian President,’ Jagdeo reportedly said last year that the global economic and financial crisis had made it difficult for Guyana to seek foreign direct investment (FDI) from the developed world and its traditional allies, and as a result, he signalled the need to develop new relations with other countries, including those in the Middle East.
Here is my question to this clearly misguided President: Why didn’t the PPP government seek out FDIs from the developed world between October 1992 and 2008 when there was no global economic and financial crisis like this one? From one former cabinet minister we learned that before returning to power in 1992, Cheddi Jagan wanted to abandon repaying Guyana’s foreign debt incurred by the PNC regime and take Guyana into the socialist bloc. In effect, the PPP did not only return to power without an economic plan, but it definitely still was not amenable to Western investors coming to Guyana, so the President’s claim that the recession in 2008 made it difficult for Guyana to seek direct investments from developed nations fails the smell test big time. Rather than bashing the US, he should just admit that the reason he resumed his overseas trips in search of economic help is because his LCDS brainchild has been placed on life support with a sign that says, ‘Resuscitate under doctor’s orders only.’
Yours faithfully,
Emile Mervin
