Appeasement?
Editorial
In case anyone had been misled by effusive headlines to the effect that Presidents Jagdeo and Chavez had agreed to reduce tensions while attending the summit of heads of state in Brazil last week, the front page of our Thursday edition should have alerted them to the reality. There, captured for all eternity on our front page, was the President of Venezuela in the act of pointing towards our Essequibo region on a map. He had been photographed while addressing the foreign media on the subject of his country's claim. And then there was what was not said in the reports coming out of Brasilia. There was plenty about energizing the bilateral commission between this country and our western neighbour, and a snippet about initiatives to reduce poverty, but not a word about Caracas backtracking on its declared intention to explore for hydrocarbons in our maritime zone, or the abandonment of its campaign to block the Beal project, among other ventures. And after all, these are the things at the bottom of the tension. Perhaps we can reduce the rhetoric, which means that dicussions can take place in a more congenial atmosphere (always to be preferred), but Venezuela's aggressive stance remains exactly what it was before the two Presidents sat down to confer in the cushioned comfort of the Hotel Nacional. In the meantime, Suriname has been busy on her own account. Just in case anyone had been misled into believing that the new government led by President Venetiaan would be more open to dialogue on the matter of the CGX rig than its predecessor, then last week's events should have raised some doubt in their mind. The incident where Surinamese soldiers in a dinghy pursued a Guyanese boat onto the Scotsburg foreshore, disembarked and then fired shots into the air as a crowd gathered, is truly astonishing. What is even more astonishing is that there has been no reaction from the Guyanese authorities as yet. Where are the ringing denunciations? Where are the strongly worded official protests? Suriname has not been idle in other ways as well. Recently the Paramaribo daily De Ware Tijd reported that our eastern neighbour had deposited maps showing "Suriname's correct borders" with the United Nations, the Organization of American States and Caricom. Maps were also provided, it said, to all UN member countries, "while documents have also been passed on to travel agencies and other relevant organizations." And to complete what for Guyana has been a none too rosy week, the media were informed that a bilateral meeting between Presidents Chavez and Venetiaan took place in Brasilia. President Jagdeo is certainly displaying more energy on the question of the borders than any other member of the administration has done previously. He is to be commended, for example, for going prepared to Brasilia, and answering President Chavez' spurious claims which were made to the foreign media in a briefing of his own. Despite a contradictory official press release, he has reassured the public that his administration is committed to recapitalizing the army, and in general, he appears much better informed about the issues than he was only a short while ago. All that is good news. However, this country is still giving off disturbing signals of appeasement, which could feed the aggression of our neighbours, and make frontier friction more difficult to manage, rather than less so. The President's gravest error in Brasilia was to give President Chavez a copy of the Beal agreement before it had been made available to Guyanese in its entirety, or laid in Parliament. The Venezuelan allegation about the rocket launch site being intended as a military base was so obviously absurd, that it was probably not believed by President Chavez himself, who was just employing it as a convenient rod with which to flay Guyana. Giving the neighbouring head of state a copy of the contract will not prevent him from opposing the project; it will, however, land the Guyanese head of state in a whole lot of unnecessary hot water at home. And then we have the matter of Suriname. Why, when our territory has been violated, does there seem to be no urgency about making a statement? Why is it that as late as last Friday, Dr Roger Luncheon had to admit that the Defence Board was not yet in receipt of a report on the incident? Surely investigations should have been undertaken with the utmost urgency, and a protest issued very quickly. What are we afraid of? And what message are we sending to those who look towards our lands with hunger in their eyes?
Guyana is still conveying the impression of being too effete, appeasing, and uncertain about what to do. Is long-term strategic planning in relation to our borders being done at all? The Guyanese public needs to be reassured that it is.
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