It is almost certainly the case that no other Guyana Head of Government or regional one, for that matter has ever before benefitted from such a surfeit of international exposure within such a short space of time after accession to office, as has President Irfaan Ali. Since assuming office he has travelled extensively, undertaking high-profile assignments, ranging from addressing the General Assembly of the United Nations to participating in the particularly high profile October/November 2021 Glasgow Summit, billed as one of the most important international gatherings on climate change ever convened anywhere.
Leaving those aside, President Ali has been to other international gatherings where he has rubbed shoulders with world leaders who had been statesmen long prior to his entry into high profile domestic politics. Those apart, he has undertaken overseas trips of a bilateral nature which have taken him to Europe, the Middle East and, closer home to countries in the Caribbean and South America. At home, he has played host to regional and continental leaders and met with the Heads of Government of two of Guyana’s three neighbouring countries to say nothing about his engagements with representatives of the international business community including some of the notable high fliers in the oil and gas industry. Beyond oil and gas, the broader opening up of the country to foreign investment has served as a lightning rod for visits here from high-profile businessmen from various parts of the world, some of whom would have had audience with the President. Those visits apart, he has also been kept busy hosting a succession of high-profile regional and international gatherings, one of the outcomes of his regional outreach being the seeming creation of close relationships between himself and other CARICOM Heads of Government, notably, Barbados Prime Minister Mottley.
Most recently, the further strengthening of Guyana’s regional credentials was manifested in the country’s hosting of the 25 x 2025 regional ‘get together’ in Georgetown, the substantive purpose of which was, to lend impetus to realizing the timelines that have been set for the significant reduction of extra-regional food exports, an indulgence that continues to be a considerable drain on countries’ scarce resources. The 25 x 2025 forum, one might add, may well serve depending on the extent to which Guyana can give robust leadership, this time around to restore the country’s credentials as the ‘lead territory’ in the region insofar as the creation of a resilient Caribbean food security architecture is concerned.
Contextually, one might argue that if, as, presumably, is envisaged, the President’s high profile international ‘outreach’ is to realize the gains which his administration seeks, then, surely, there is merit in embarking on a corresponding raising of the profile and increasing the work load of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, since, presumably, it will, at regular intervals, be pressed into service in pursuit of the goal of strengthening both the President’s and the country’s foreign policy credentials.
Up until now the crafting of President Ali’s credentials as a ‘foreign policy’ President has succeeded, to a point, primarily because his role has been manifest in his persistent presence on the international stage and his attendant rubbing of shoulders with high-profile leaders of both countries and international organizations. It has to be said, however, that the President’s and by extension the country’s building of more robust bilateral and multi-lateral relationships will have to rely on the more deliberate and sustained contributions of a sufficiently well-trained, well equipped Foreign Service, on the whole, which with due respect to the competent professionals who serve as diplomats at this time is decidedly non-existent. The further point that should be made here is that while there can be no more suitable a person than the Head of State to lead the country’s foreign policy ‘charge,’ putting meat on the bones of the groundwork that his interventions would have laid is an essential plank for the effective realization of the hoped for outcomes of his efforts. Such outcomes cannot be achieved through the periodic pressing into service of selected state officials parading recently sculpted ‘portfolios’ to perform functions for which they are not known to have either the aptitude or the requisite professional training.
The substantive upgrading of the Foreign Service to have it reach a level that corresponds with the country’s foreign policy ambitions cannot be realized through the creation of a separate ‘diplomatic tier’ selected from political ‘picks’ with little if any substantive understanding of the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the country’s foreign policy and the mechanics of how this must be applied in pursuit of the continued realization of the country’s economic interests and its broader international objectives. This is not the first time that our editorial columns have made this point.
Much as the government might insist to the contrary, it now appears to have set aside, whether for the time being or otherwise, the essential pursuit of fashioning a full-time, professional Foreign Service equipped to respond adequately to the need to manage a foreign policy infrastructure that corresponds with the country’s particular objectives insofar as external relations is concerned.
That seemingly being the case, it needs to say just how it proposes to put meat on the bones of the openings that are presumably being created on account of the President’s ‘legwork’.
The fact that the ‘batting strength’ of the Foreign Ministry appears to be at variance with the weight of its particular requirements at this time not least those that have to do with both our substantive development interests as well as others that are part of our wider global preoccupations is something which, since its accession to office, it has shown little inclination to correct.
One of the presumed hoped-for outcomes of the just concluded 25 x 2025 forum is that it might repair Guyana’s disfigured credentials as the ‘lead territory’ in the region on food security. The destruction of that credential has been largely, a function, of our mind-boggling failure to put real meat on the bones of the time-worn regional food security rhetoric. Over time, we have shown a far greater appetite for the hype and hoopla that attends events like 25 x 2025. Hopefully, what emerges from the 25 x 2025 gathering of (some) CARICOM Heads, will be a focus on regional food security that far exceeds the weak and palpably ineffective previous efforts that say, definitively, that, as a region, we are ready to put the showboating that still obtains behind us.