During his term, former president Donald Ramotar rejected the idea of a channel through Guyana’s Atlantic waters as a means of settling the long-running border controversy with Venezuela and says that his predecessor Bharrat Jagdeo should not have voiced that option.
“When we were in government, we were preparing to go back to the United Nations to say that the Good Officer Process did not amount to any success, not that it wasn’t useful… just that it was tired and did not yield a conclusion,” he told Stabroek News in an interview on Sunday.
“I never examined that option, about giving the Channel or anything for that matter, because I didn’t think it would fly at all. I think we lost more territory than anyone else and we shouldn’t have to lose more now. No we shouldn’t! No! No! No!” he emphasised.
He said that his government had decided to ask the UN for a range of options to settle the border controversy because the Good Officer process had been exhausted.
Last month, Jagdeo told reporters that his PPP/C government had explored the option of granting Venezuela a channel through Guyana’s Atlantic waters. Jagdeo said that the view was explored as a means of settling the long-running border controversy, which escalated in May this year.
Ramotar told Stabroek News that his administration rejected this option. He explained that this was because he felt that Guyana had lost enough of her territory already and it would have been most callous to lose more now.
He added that while he was not defending what Jagdeo said, analysis of a myriad of options on varying national issues are what every government does. He added that Jagdeo should have shut up.
“I don’t know why he shared that information about what options…look when you are in government you examine everything. You don’t exclude anything but it doesn’t mean that you will go with any which one. If you (in government ) say you don’t, you are lying, simple, but you look also at the impact, the pros and the cons, you have your scale and you weigh whatever issue, policy and so forth. It’s what governing is, then you say this x, y or z is best for people and country,” he explained.
He said months before the May 11th general elections, his government was preparing to go to the UN for assistance in showing what options were available to Guyana so that there could be a final settlement of the issue. He felt that a final settlement was needed as the controversy had deterred investors and was retarding the country’s economic growth.
“We had reached a stage where this border controversy was retarding the economic development of our country and that was why we took the decision of going back to the UN to look at another option.
We did not conclude definitely that a juridical settlement we wanted but were going back to look for another path to bring this thing to a finite conclusion,” Ramotar asserted.
“We know that we wanted the UN to be engaged in the issue and whatever option would have been done with that in mind but we wanted a conclusion,” he declared.
Presently, the APNU+AFC government is insisting that the controversy be settled juridically, while Venezuela wants the Good Officer process to continue. President David Granger and other government spokesmen have noted that the process had run its course without yielding results.
Ramotar believes that Venezuela’s increased aggression in May has much to with its internal politics and says that while Maduro may seem aggressive, he believes opposition forces in that country poses a more real threat. It is for that reason, he said, that Guyana deserves a final settlement to the controversy.
“This has lot has to do with its internal politics. The opposition in Venezuela is very, very aggressive on this (border) issue, extremely aggressive. If you are comparing the politics in Venezuela to see which of their parties are most (aggressive), it would be them. I don’t think that we should stop talking with Maduro. We should get a final settlement (because) if the opposition gets into government then it can be more aggressive…,” he said.
Recently, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sent investigative teams to Georgetown and Caracas after which they will report to him and he will make a decision as to whether he will grant Guyana’s petition to take the matter to the International Court of Justice (ICJ), located in The Hague, the Netherlands.
