A new book chronicling the country’s achievements and challenges since independence was gained 50 years ago, particularly the ongoing territorial controversy with Venezuela, was launched last evening.
Sir Shridath Ramphal, the author of “Guyana in the World: The First Fifty Years and The Predatory Challenge,” yesterday pointed out that many have grown up not knowing Guyana and the dangers that it faces in wake of Venezuela’s “baseless” claim.
“The Venezuela claim upon us is a calumny born of greed, nurtured by falsity and fable and maintained by political demagoguery. It is a claim that is contemptuous of the rule of international law and scornful of the sanctity of treaties. It is a claim that threatens the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Guyana and the peace of our region. It combines greed, lies and xenophobia into a toxic brew; but it is a brew stirred not by the ordinary people of Vene-zuela…but by the classes and forces, cliques and cabals in Venezuela who pursue their own ends,” Sir Shridath said at the launching, which was held at the Georgetown Club.
The international statesman was asked by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to put together a book which reflected on Guyana’s early years as an independent nation and its struggles and achievements since then. Sir Shridath is a former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Guyana and a former Commonwealth Secretary General.
“More and more Guyanese have grown up not knowing of Guyana in the great new world we had entered. That is why I was pleased when the Foreign Ministry asked me to reflect on those early years….I knew there were years of great achievement and years of great challenges, challenges persisting to this day,” he pointed out.
According to Sir Shridath, Guyana’s first fifty years “in the world” and the response to the challenges faced from the “predatory assaults on our borders” are recollections of pride.
“Some of those latter challenges are so fierce today that I have dwelt on them at some length; rather, specifically the challenge with Venezuela. My purpose here is to expose anew the baseless character of that challenge and bring home to our people the serious dangers that we face,” he said.
He reminded the gathering that particularly at this time, when Venezuela is “a political maelstrom of internal making, we have to be specifically understanding of these realities.”
“Guyana’s strength lies in the understanding of our people of the righteousness of our cause and the hollowness of Venezuela’s. I hope this little book might help to further that understands,” he said.
The 94-page book is divided into two parts; in the first part, the country’s first fifty years is focused on, particularly with respect to the efforts made to put Guyana on the international stage; the history of non-alignment and the building of the Umana Yana; and the country’s relationship with Cuba and the Caribbean; and the second part focuses on the border challenges with Venezuela and Suriname.
“But of course Guyana’s fortunes and accomplishments in the world go well beyond our frontiers,” he said. He said that what has been accomplished as documented in Part One of the book as “an infant state is something that shall ever be to the credit of Guyana and ever remembered by the world. Guyanese must be mindful of those accomplishments as many the world over are.”
He spoke of his privilege to have been personally involved in some of the country’s post-independence achievements and to have been asked to recall them in the book.
“From the roles we have played as a young state in the highest offices of the United Nations… in managing critical moments of the Non Aligned Move-ment, in steering issues of global significance like breaking the diplomatic embargo with Cuba, in leading the Caribbean’s first encounter with Europe, in creating the ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific group of countries) and regionally in inspiring the post federal revival of regionalism and the movement from CARIFTA to Caricom, Guyana more than justified the place that independence earned it in the world,” he said.
“I wrote about the challenges Guyana faces but (they) will continue to be of great assistance to us in the years ahead,” he said before singling out the late archivist Joel Benjamin for his lifetime of research, some of which was helpful in the production of the book.
Sir Shridath, towards the end of his address, expressed hope that all, including the younger generation to whom the book is dedicated, would have the opportunity to read it.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge spoke highly of the publication and also in part reflected on the territorial controversy with Venezuela.
He said that in Part Two of the book one would read how Venezuela had cherished the 1899 arbitral tribunal award, settling the boundaries of the two countries, for sixty years. “The facts of our case have been carefully documented in these pages and seek to dispel the falsehoods that have been promoted by our neighbour to the West since our independence to now,” he said.
The minister contended that Venezuela’s claim to Essequibo is rooted it its “rejection of every relevant international agreement over five centuries – from the Treaty of Munster in 1648, to the Treaty of Washington in 1897 to the Geneva Agreement in 1966.”
He said that were Venezuela’s arguments to prevail, the frontiers of innumerable countries the world over would be in jeopardy as the sanctity of treaties, which is the glue holding the international community of states together, would have melted. He said, therefore, that Guyana’s resistance of Venezuela’s perverse contentions is a “global service.”
According to Greenidge, Venezuela’s present economic and financial situation is the subject of much speculation. “But let me make it clear, Guyana takes no pleasure in the political and economic turmoil that has seized Venezuela. The people of Venezuela are not merely our neighbours…they are our brothers and sisters. Their calamities cause us fraternal worry and pain and of course national anxiety. We follow developments closely, but with sorrow,” he said.
Greenidge reminded all that Sir Shridath played a critical role in Guyana’s independence with the drafting of the “Indepen-dence Constitution and launching us on the world scene.”
President David Granger was among those gathered for the ceremony. Though invited, the Leader of the Opposition Bharrat Jagdeo was not present.
