The army band struck up the national anthems of Brazil and Guyana; the flags of the two nations were solemnly raised; earnest prayers were said; and two thousand people watched in eager anticipation as the Takutu Bridge, the new link between Guyana and its continental hinterland, was opened to the free flow of traffic for the first time. Except that it wasn’t. By next day the Guyana authorities had rolled out the oil drums and the bridge was as closed as ever.
Opened on Sunday, closed on Monday – what exactly was going on? Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett told the media that the bridge was definitely not in use, and consultations were continuing to finalise a date for the opening. She was reported as saying that discussions at the bilateral level had materialized to the point where the Brazilian authorities had contacted the Foreign Affairs Ministry the previous Friday to report that their “Civil Office was taking steps in order to allow the provisional settlement of pedestrian and vehicular traffic on the bridge.” She went on to say: “The [Brazilian] embassy further advised that as soon as this matter is resolved the ministry will be duly informed in order for the necessary measures to be taken at the consular and immigration sectors in Lethem.”
The Minister could not be accused of illuminating the situation much with this bit of diplomat-speak; what, for example, is the “settlement of pedestrian and vehicular traffic on the bridge”? Is this an idiosyncratically phrased acknowledgement that the Brazilians were making preparations for a provisional opening? And exactly what “matter” had to be “resolved” to trigger the putting in place of consular and immigration arrangements by the Guyana authorities? ‘Settling’ pedestrians and cars on the bridge?
Were the Brazilians planning a provisional opening pending the Guyanese getting their act together, and either misunderstood Guyana’s position, or in exasperation at the lack of movement on this side were not averse to applying indirect pressure to speed things up? Whatever the case, it certainly can be said that the Brazilians were impatient and the Guyanese were dilatory.
Brazilian Ambassador Arthur Meyer shrugged his shoulders (in a metaphorical sense, that is) when asked about the non-opening ceremony, explaining it away as a decision taken by the local state authorities of Roraima probably because of the decree recently issued by the federal government declaring Bon Fim an official port of entry. The Governor of Roraima, he said, had acted unilaterally, and in fact had “a wide margin of autonomy… and within the scope of the territory he can act with considerable leeway…” While that is not in dispute, one cannot help but feel that even the powerful Governor of Roraima cannot commission a bridge provisionally or otherwise on his own authority when an international boundary is involved. Are we to believe that the federal representatives who appear to have been engaged in discussions in Georgetown in relation to this very matter, had absolutely no inkling about what the Governor had in mind? Are their communication arrangements that bad? Or was it just that they decided to turn a Nelson’s eye?
Whatever the case the net result of all this is embarrassment for Takuba Lodge, not for Itara-marty. After all, Brazil is ready, and Guyana is not. Certainly the photograph of the multipurpose structure in Lethem reproduced in our edition on Tuesday did not inspire confidence. In the first place the single-storey building looked entirely deserted, as if no moves were being made to occupy it; and in the second, it did not appear all that spacious given the traffic which might be anticipated at that particular border crossing. There is something else too which is a little strange: as GINA has been at pains to explain, the “complex” will house not just immigration and Customs, et al, but the hospital as well. It is, to say the least, an eccentric arrangement, which may well end up being unworkable, more especially if the quarters for the port authority turn out to be inadequate for the number of visitors passing through. At a minimum this seems to be a classic case of penny wise and pound foolish.
Contrast this with the photo of the well-appointed Customs House in Bon Fim which we published in the same edition. It is commodious (and it doesn’t even cater for a hospital), and there is activity around it in the form vehicles and people. One would hardly expect the Guyana authorities to have the resources at their disposal to construct the equivalent of what the Brazilian authorities can afford; however, one cannot help but wonder whether this modest little building reflects good planning and an accurate projection of future traffic.
Be all that as it may, now that we have had the anti-climax of a non-opening, drawing public attention to which side is ready and which side isn’t, the Guyana administration really should make some effort to expedite its bureaucratic arrangements so that we can have an official commissioning, traffic can flow, and this diplomatic contretemps can be forgotten.
