Dear Editor,
Please allow me to make some comments about the cartoon in your Sunday 21st July edition.
While your cartoonist normally has his finger on the pulse of Guyana his cartoon suggests that he is either uninformed or has managed to be hoodwinked by the propaganda being levelled at the opposition.
The cartoon shows Guyana holding a time bomb titled ‘Spiteful Tit for Tat Parliament.’ He may be technically correct but insofar as the purpose of a cartoon is to give a picture of the situation ‘Tit for tat’ is simplistic.
The representation ignores the fact that politics is about negotiation, which very simply put is the science of getting what you want. Trade unions do it with employers, bosses and employees do it over salaries, countries do it over trade agreements, etc, etc. Now, what we are seeing at work from the Government of Guyana is hardball negotiations – give your opponent as little as possible (ideally nothing at all) but get what you want in the end. If your cartoonist cannot see through all the name-calling, lampooning and feigned anger, thank goodness the opposition parties are smart enough to do so!
The more informed among the populace may not know anything about the tricks and traps of negotiation but they can recognize the games going on. It is troubling that Mr Harris has given the impression that he is a member of the constituency the government bench is playing to as you have to be very smart to be so accurate in your portrayal of what is happening as Mr Harris usually is.
What is interesting is that the GOG is behaving like a man who is under so much pressure at work from an unreasonable boss and comes home and beats up his wife and children. The airport contract is just the latest evidence of our lack of negotiating ability as a country. The crafty Chinese have managed to outnegotiate the GOG hands down.
The elements of the negotiation process are power, information, and time. So you do not ever let your opponent know your real deadline. What was explained to the nation is that the Chinese offered Guyana a large line of credit and gave the GOG a short time by which they must accept. So the Chinese knew our deadline from the outset as they set it.
So the GOG are poor negotiators when it comes to foreigners, but want to beat up on the locals and the opposition parties are having none of it. This is the context in which your cartoonist calls the opposition action ‘tit-for-tat.’ Could it be that Mr Harris does cartoons for another paper and sent the wrong one to SN? The cartoon looks like it belongs somewhere else.
Yours faithfully,
Frederick W A Collins
