Dear Editor,
The recent photo in the Kaieteur News of Chris Ram conferring with Western diplomats after the removal of the Ram-Gaskin show on Sharma TV speaks volumes about foreign interest in Guyana’s internal politics and democratic performance. Mr Allan Fenty in his ‘Frankly speaking’ column in Stabroek News observed the significance of the image while comparing it to the Jimmy Carter visit in 1992. But there is a wider implication at work here with Western and especially US foreign policy. After the embarrassment of the intelligence failures and mis-assessments in the North Africa and Middle Eastern uprisings where the US failed to detect or ignored the degree of simmering discontent and consequent social and political flare-up, one can be pretty sure that there has been a global revamp and/or scolding of the diplomatic and intelligence community at foreign outposts.
Diplomats will be asked not to rely only upon the cocktail circuits, appearances of calm and official statistics to make calculations of the political and social climate in a given country. Now, by assured edict of the State Department, diplomatic representatives will be required to ‘visit the trenches’ and ‘observe’ local politics more actively even if it entails stepping out of traditional diplomatic caution.
Perhaps this is why the image of the diplomats with Chris Ram resonates with symbolism as the Guyana government’s harassment and restrictions on a free media continue.
Yours faithfully,
Nigel Westmaas
