Border controversy: The best line of defence

Oct 23, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Hard truths…

Kaieteur News – The latest is that Venezuela has positioned troops and materiel closer to Guyana’s border.  Closer as in precariously so, alarmingly so.  Then, there is the Venezuelan Minister of Defense [in full military regalia] speaking of the ‘sun shining on Essequiba’ is that of his country.

Just before that the Venezuelan Government and Opposition fusion of groups signed a pact over elections.  It would be astonishing if there is one among those tenderhearted neighbors, who looks at Guyana/Essequiba and that Sea of Oil stretching East to West, and thinks, says, or believes that it is not theirs.  Theirs by sacred birthright.  Theirs by sacrosanct dispensation.  Theirs by the inviolable sanctity of the patrimony of the Venezuelan people.  All of them, including those now firmly embedded in Demerara, very distant from Ankoko.

On this side of the border, Excellency Ali has “briefed” the Leader of the Opposition on developments.  Other than that, Guyanese have not seen nor heard of any additional national encircling of this issue at the highest political levels.  For sure, the communities beyond Timehri have been informed and engaged.  Good!  Plus, there have been press pronouncements from both government and opposition leadership.  I am still waiting for the rest, for more.  In fairness, there could be backchannel linkages and conversations.  I hope it is, indeed, so.

For in the Venezuelan Border controversy, Guyana lives under the shadow of an existential crisis.  The territory and the reality of Guyana are that a phony war is in place.  Communities under siege, Guyanese authority undermined [or nonexistent], and of Spanish sounds reverberating all the way to Georgetown.  Said more pointedly, Venezuelan inroads into Guyana and its way of life, its rule of law, and its control over its remote territory are all overrun as if inconsequential.

Using as contexts, anxieties arise about the respective mental states, physical locations, and spiritual convictions of the government and opposition about where matters stand, where they should be, and to where they must rally the Guyanese people.  I recognize ‘not a blade of grass’, not one morsel of mud.  But President Ali cannot batten down behind his raised drawbridge at Office of the President; nor Opposition Leader Norton find refuge at Congress Place, or his office.  It is not that from inside of those bastions, they draw lines in the sand about where they and their party stand.  Warming, but not inspiring; certainly not marshaling and driving citizens, who all need to be brought to a different pitch than present.

First, HE and OL should be publicly meeting, conversing, exchanging, studying, planning, and deciding about contingency developments, engaging Guyanese.  Second, I think that Venezuelan bellicosity could serve as a prime motivator to bring Guyanese to a single place: This land is my land.  Third, I do not believe that the Venezuelan leadership would be so reckless and actually initiate palpable hostilities, for there is Exxon and America.  There are those fresh American favors for Venezuela to savor, as in relaxing of sanctions that bite deeply.

As I see it, Guyana looks as secure as Israel.  Fourth, the Chinese have a quarter share in the riches that Venezuela covets, and given Beijing’s relations with Caracas, its word must have some meaning, brings some pausing.  Fifth, Venezuela has enough citizens to spare for residence in Guyana, which stirs recollections of Czechoslovakia, the Sudetenland, and that wonderful chap, Adolf Hitler.  In other words, people planted, ideas generated, territorial visions venerated.

The latter is but an expression of the low-key phony war mentioned earlier now in motion.  Holding in one cupped hand, and rolling the pieces together, I arrive at this place.  Where is the Guyana Government and the Guyana Opposition?  What is President Ali and Opposition Leader Norton all about, how wide and how deep, given the pitch of Venezuelan words (mouthfuls), postures (powerful), and actions (baleful)?  To both patriots, I say that this is not business as usual, a regular day at the office.  The times do not uphold such sentiments, circumstances definitely point the other way.  From the diplomatic lexicon, I select this one word: grim.  The air is heavy with the dim and dull.

Considering the temper of the moment, there is neither government nor opposition.  There is Guyana.  Measuring the tone of the times, there is no PPP, no PNC.  Only Guyana.  Balancing the call of circumstances, why the hell are these two groups, these two leaders, not walking, working, waging a united battle in the closest physical proximity?  For a show of inseparable unity.  Towards gathering and blending the entirety of the Guyanese people as to what they face, and what they must face down.  Together!

I leave a syllable.  The border controversy is about the wealth of Guyanese, at bottom, to the crux.  Guyanese must be energized and galvanized by that mental condition, that spiritual wisdom.  They must also be just as immovably one in standing against the ambitions of neighbors.  And they must be as one for that wealth, as in participating in it to the fullest.  President Ali and Opposition Leader Norton must lead with fire and ice on both counts.  Bring the people together, brothers.

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