H@RD TRUTHS BY GHK LALL – Peace – durable and credible

Dec 24, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – Guyanese would have noticed that a subdued, as well as a supportive line has been adhered to during the Venezuelan crisis.  I looked away from PPP Government’s…ah, shortages, as part of holding my own peace in the national interest.  I offered little by way of criticism on the leadership of Excellency Ali, though he was anything but beneath the bold words, and brash swagger.  I still refrain from drawing blood at this time.

There was and is concern, though, with former president Jagdeo’s fixation with Venezuelans for Votes (V4V), of which more should be on the way after the long holiday season.  C’mon, I am more of a Christmas guy than most.

Objective Peace could have been the codename of exchanges between Guyana and the international community.  Objective Essequibo ran into some headwinds in Argyle, and left Guyana a little under.  I refuse to cast around for culprits.  After all the men there should not be expected to operate above their respective ceilings.  It was low, to begin with, a shade on the shabby side.  The President was wise enough to walk with the Hon Attorney General.  The latter was unwise and discombobulated enough (couldn’t help that one) to be fascinated and fearful of the mountains of documents compiled by the Venezuelans for the St Vincentian confab.  Mr. Maduro may not have wanted to shake his hand, but the Guyanese could not remove his eyes from the Maduro Memos.  Regardless, Guyana left St Vincent with its Golden Fleece: peace.

Admittedly, it is peace at a price.  A stiff one.  Who the hell wants to deal with Switzerland when Hague is the only destination.  Hague, the place, not Haig the second-rate whiskey.  Also, it is peace with honor, as some Guyanese pundits would like for people like me to believe.  I am an atheist on this, and that’s my confession today.  Still, I forego hesitations, for the time being, on the price paid for peace to the nation, and peace that questions the essences of national honor.  My thinking is all embroiled in the nature of the peace to follow.

Considering how much was bargained for, and what Guyana received in return, it seems that both the PPP and PNC are good at participating in one-sided deals.  For those pretending at memory obstacles, the latter party has to do with Exxon and oil.  That aside, the peace bargain is only as good as how credible and durable this peace negotiated by the likes of Gonsalves and Mottley and crew in St Vincent.  The latter had some regard in this corner, but that evaporated; the former was always seen as a phony, which is the best credential of successful politicians.  I think that Guyana bought some time.  Venezuela gets off from its knees, and it could feel frisky and reinvigorated enough to start kicking up its heels.  Guess in which direction and in whose faces?

For there was Nicolas Maduro, white shirt and all, as though he was some angel on a purifying mission with infidels.  He wants to stay in power, so he must behave himself.  This means that the Argyle Declaration has some promise relative to its durability; at least, up to elections, and how that is handled, and who is allowed to triumph.  Yes, I did say that: who is allowed to arise out of the ballot box.  If they do things like we do over here with elections, there could be hell to pay.  My people, the Americans, are sure to have something to say.  Mr. Maduro wins in a fair fight, and the man could then rollout phase two (it may be phase five) of his schemes on Guyana’s territory.  Get this straight: the man Maduro is a schemer and a hustler.  He is not a thinker, just a cold, fish-eyed operator.  It is why he has bonded so well with his counterparts in Guyana.  So, I think that the peace scratched out by President Ali has some time on its hands.  But is this peace now bandied about so deliciously credible?

Well, I have my doubts.  Men like Maduro and Jagdeo can’t help themselves.  They itch and twitch too much.  The Guyanese President (de facto is what keeps making the rounds) is already busy plotting his V4V (Venezuelans for Votes) visions, as though national elections are right now in the middle of talk about war, and fears of war.  I always saw him as a funny fella, a seriously funny one.  Meanwhile, the man in Caracas is up to his own tricks conjuring ways and means, having nothing to do with what is fair, to help Guyana increase its immigrant population.  I regret to inform my fellow Guyanese that newcomers from the West should not be seen as economic migrants.  I was one (still am), so I know one when I see one.  Then, there are those American millions in Venezuela’s national budget for Essequibo in this hard guava season over there.  I don’t see that cash going back to the Venezuelan treasury.  It has to be put to use.  The verbiage was for the “defense of Essequibo.  With all these peace pipes smoked, and talk of peace in the air (it is Xmas), why the need for that appropriation?  Thus, my hangups with the credible peace that Guyana still searches for, but which I think might me a mirage this side of the Sahara.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• GHK Lall, H@rd Truths, Jagdeo’s, PPP, Venezuelan

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