For a small country Guyana has produced a remarkable number of eminent scholars who have made valuable contributions in a variety of fields, but of these only Shridath ‘Sonny’ Ramphal who died on August 30 had an impact on the course of world events. Endowed with an impressive intellect Ramphal was an outstanding lawyer, a consummate diplomat and an eloquent writer, in addition to possessing a gift for organisation and a creative approach to the structuring of new ideas so they could be translated into practical reality. At a personal level everyone who ever met him remarked on the geniality of his demeanour.
Like many exceptional people he was fortunate in life, since he received a sound education in this country (his father was an educational reformer), and attended Queen’s College at the secondary level. While QC was one of the great schools of the anglophone colonial period, the then British Guiana did not afford possibilities for the pursuit of any further ambition on the part of talented individuals. Ramphal, however, was given the opportunity to expand his horizons by studying law in King’s College, London, something he was able to build on with a Guggenheim Fellowship at Harvard University a decade later. He also qualified as a barrister-at-law in London.
But innate abilities and education aside, he was fortunate in another respect, and that was the time in which he lived. Had he been born into the previous generation he might have become a first-class lawyer in this country, but would not have been known internationally. Attaining maturity after the Second World War, however, his talents were given room for expansion in an environment where the old British empire was crumbling, where a different global order was emerging and where new states, groupings, institutions and thinking were coming to the fore.
Obituaries in developed countries have focused on his period as Commonwealth Secretary General from 1975 to 1990, as well they might. Marlborough House has not had the same sense of purpose or direction either before or since, and Ramphal himself was described by former Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser as “by far, the ablest and most effective of all the Secretaries-General of the Commonwealth.”
His great achievements were his work to ensure an African majority when what was then Southern Rhodesia was due to become independent as Zimbabwe, and subsequently in taking on apartheid in South Africa. While there were other factors at work there, unrelenting Commonwealth pressure also played its part in the extinction of that immoral system. Justifiably, therefore, the entire period under Ramphal has been described by the London Guardian as the organisation’s “glory years.” It should be said it was not easy for the Secretary General since he had to confront the implacable Mrs Thatcher with her indulgence towards the white minority, and for a time too her Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington.
The springboard for Ramphal’s accession to the secretary-generalship was his work creating the ACP, which led to the Lomé Convention. This had its seeds in Georgetown during the meeting of Non-Aligned foreign ministers, which eventually led the following year to the Georgetown Declaration of 1975. Since the Commonwealth post had recently become vacant, and Ramphal was so well known to the ACP diplomats, he had no problem securing their countries’ support for his candidacy, his case also being helped by the backing of Pierre Trudeau of Canada.
It would have been thought that given the trajectory of his career Ramphal would have become UN Secretary General. His name was put up twice, both times during the period when he was still at the Commonwealth. On the first occasion Lord Carrington famously remarked that he would swim the Atlantic twice to prevent Ramphal acceding to the post, although on the second occasion the British were not opposed to him.
This time, of the five permanent members of the Security Council the Chinese were his most enthusiastic supporters. A straw poll taken before the vote of all the Council members produced one veto. Ramphal never did find out which country was responsible, although the French had made it known they wanted a francophone appointee, while the Soviet ambassador frankly told him that he reminded them too much of the second UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld, who was a major problem for the USSR. Ramphal said his best information was that it was the Americans, although he had his doubts. If it was, then their reasoning would have been the same as that of the Soviets.
At some point after he left Marlborough House Ramphal was asked by a reporter about aspirations he might have for eventually going to the UN, and he responded that he thought that time had passed. That did not mean, however, that he disengaged from international affairs; far from it. He participated in a number of high-level commissions and organisations over the years including on international development; disarmament and security; international humanitarian issues; environment and development; conservation; democracy; preventing deadly conflict; global governance; and development planning.
Caribbean writers have focused on his contributions to the region, and it has to be said that Ramphal always regarded himself as a Caribbean man. He began his association working for the doomed Federation, but later was able to contribute to the founding of first, Carifta and then later Caricom. He also became the Chief Trade Negotiator of Caricom’s Regional Negotiating Machinery, and was Chairman of the West Indian Commission which produced Time For Action, a work much praised by the leaders, but which they hardly implemented.
It was not as if Ramphal’s contributions were confined to a world external to his homeland. In the 1950s he had held various legal posts here, including that of Solicitor General, but in 1965 he became Attorney General, and in that capacity he accompanied Forbes Burnham to London for the discussions with the Venezuelans about the border chaired by Michael Stewart. Ramphal has written that this marked the start of his “global life.” Those discussions came to naught, and the final talks were held in Geneva in February the following year, which resulted in an agreement.
But the new AG also had the major part to play in drafting the 1966 Constitution. He has called it “a good workmanlike Constitution,” although as he related in his memoir called ‘Glimpses of a Global Life,’ it became one of his principal areas of disagreement with Burnham, when the latter subsequently wanted to move to an executive presidency. The 1966 Constitution did include, however, what he called an innovative device.
Burnham wanted a republic, something the PPP would certainly have been in accord with, but to which Peter D’Aguiar was opposed (although Ramphal does not name him).
An annexe to the Constitution was consequently produced containing the amendments which would be necessary to turn the country into a republic, and a clause was inserted in the main document stating that any time after the lapse of five years the amendments could be activated by act of Parliament. It was an early example of Ramphal’s creativity in crafting compromises to resolve deadlocks.
Ramphal tried to keep aloof from domestic politics, telling Burnham when he was offered the AG post he had never dabbled in politics and had no wish to do so. The Premier had told him then that the Attorney General would be a technocrat without political affiliation. The same applied to his management of the Foreign Ministry, although Burnham retained the name of Foreign Minister.
Ramphal recognised the centrality of the border to the ministry’s work, describing it as “the central issue on the agenda” and “central to every facet of Guyana’s foreign relations.”
Local critics have taken aim at him for continuing to function as AG and in particular for accepting the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs after Burnham rigged the election of 1968 and remaining in that post after 1973. Essentially Ramphal perceived himself as non-political, and had told Burnham he would not join his or any political party. If he had to sit in the legislature for technical reasons he would have no vote and would not be answerable to any whip. The prime minister had agreed to this. He thought foreign affairs “was a field I could enter into without being drawn into domestic politics.”
While it is true he never engaged in local politics at any time, he could not avoid some measure of contamination from the authoritarianism of the era; it was just not possible to make a distinction in the public mind between the work he was doing, and Burnham’s anti-democratic acts. His reputation was salvaged by leaving in 1975 to embark on his international career.
For all of that his contribution in the foreign affairs field here, which had Burnham’s full backing, was significant, particularly where the border was concerned. And that continued even after he left. It will be remembered that he was the Co-Agent and Counsel in the Guyana-Suriname Maritime Arbitration between 2004-2007, which resulted in a decision in our favour. It might be mentioned too that he had been the facilitator in the mediation process for the Belize-Guatemala boundary dispute undertaken by the OAS. Unfortunately, the resolution arrived at was then reneged on by Guatemala.
It is perhaps fitting that Ramphal ended his ‘global life’ as he had started it, working on the matter of our western boundary. On this occasion it took the form of arguing the case for the validity of the 1899 Award before the International Court of Justice.
His own final words on his career found at the end of his memoir consist of a verse from the poet Robert Frost, the last two lines of which read:
Heaven gives its glimpses only to those
Not in a position to look too close.
