It is a good thing that the Minister of Foreign Affairs has convened a conference for the heads of Guyana’s 13 diplomatic missions abroad. What is not such a good thing is that, apart from three career officers functioning in acting capacities, all our Ambassadors and High Commissioners, as well as our Consuls General in New York and Toronto, are political appointees. Of these, only Dr Patrick Gomes, our man in Brussels, with previous experience at the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Caribbean Centre for Development Administration, can safely be regarded as a technocrat. Based on the government’s form to date, there is little reason to believe that professional diplomats will in due course be appointed to head the Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York, and the embassies in Beijing and Paramaribo. But we digress…
The meeting at the International Conference Centre this week, with the somewhat cumbersome theme, “Repositioning the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to effectively promote the national interest”, was both timely and necessary, after an inexcusable lapse of nine years. The aim was reportedly to undertake a review of Guyana’s foreign policy and examine strategies and possible new directions, including the strengthening of traditional alliances and the diversification of relations with the likes of Brazil and countries in the Middle East and Asia. Operational issues to enhance the performance of the missions were also supposedly on the agenda, though details were thin.
One and a half years ago, when Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett was surprisingly appointed as the country’s top diplomat, we had expressed the hope that she would develop an integrated and coherent foreign policy in the framework of our national development, with the overarching goals of preserving our territorial integrity, advancing our economic interests and guaranteeing the security of our citizens (SN, April 25, 2009, Change at Takuba Lodge). Earlier this year, we were pleased to note that she had begun to take steps to address the chronic, morale-sapping problems of promotions in the Foreign Service, though there are a raft of other administrative and human resource issues, including pay and promotions, to which she must attend, if she is going to revitalize the Ministry. No one has ever pretended that this process would be easy, not least because of the apparent perception in certain quarters that spending money on the Foreign Service is a wasteful and unnecessary exercise. Perhaps, though, Mrs Rodrigues-Birkett has a plan and this encounter with her mission heads is integral to “repositioning” the Foreign Ministry, even if she must perforce, given the well-known political and financial constraints, approach her task from an incremental perspective.
Nevertheless, we hope that the conference will have reiterated the traditional pillars of Guyana’s foreign policy – the preservation of our territorial integrity, economic diplomacy and protecting the interests of our citizens abroad – as well as stimulating new thinking on how these fundamental principles might be adapted or broadened in the context of the changing international environment.
Certainly, with regard to our overseas citizenry, recent events have underlined that there needs to be a more robust defence of their interests, particularly in those countries where their human rights may be threatened. After all, in addition to their legal rights as holders of Guyana passports, these very citizens are the source of remittances that have played such a significant role in relieving the pressure on the government for the delivery of more economic goods to Guyanese at home. But we need to go beyond remittances. In this respect, the Foreign Ministry should lead the way in devising a strategy for tapping into the Diaspora, for example, by creating a databank of skills that the country can call on to help advance our development efforts. Our network of overseas missions and honorary consuls constitutes the first line of engagement with Guyanese abroad. A structured approach to the Diaspora to support socio-economic development at home would therefore be one of the more tangible outputs of the conference.
We also hope that the meeting was able to generate new ideas beyond the cap-in-hand approach that seems to pass for our economic diplomacy. President Jagdeo’s Low Carbon Development Strategy, whether one agrees with it or not, is an example of a strategy that seeks to transcend aid and debt write-off, as it brings together critical themes on the international agenda such as the environment, climate change and sustainable natural resources development. Surely, by now, in his outreach to the international community for financial transfers to keep Guyana’s forests standing and in his pursuit of a deal in Copenhagen in December on a new global agreement on climate change and a new development model for small, middle-income countries, the President will have come to the realization that his international advocacy will have greater chances of success if he is able to count on the support of a corps of multi-skilled diplomats, versed in the evolving practices of international diplomacy.
But whatever the new strategies and partnerships, we ignore at our peril the continued threat to our developmental aspirations posed by the territorial ambitions of our neighbours to the east and west. Our inability to benefit from the fabled natural resources of the Essequibo region, due to our own lack of capacity and Venezuela’s active discouragement of potential investors is frustrating and economically debilitating. We are pleased that the appointment of the renowned Jamaican development economist, Norman Girvan, as Good Officer under the auspices of the UN Secretary General, appears to be imminent. In spite of Professor Girvan’s apparent enthusiasm for ALBA and Petrocaribe, we are confident that none of this will prevent him from playing the role of honest broker between Guyana and Venezuela. In the meantime, it really behoves the government to bring together the best minds in the Foreign Ministry and other agencies, the security forces, academia, civil society and the Diaspora, to devise a more dynamic borders strategy that would facilitate the sustainable development of the entire country.
These are but a few ideas. We are sure that this long overdue conference ranged farther and wider in its discussions. We therefore look forward to hearing about its concrete results and its value to the participants and to the nation. We hope moreover that a report will be tabled for debate in Parliament. And we hope that the Heads of Mission conference itself will once again become a regular feature of updating and implementing Guyana’s foreign policy.