The People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) has evidently been lobbying the international community to condemn the Government of Venezuela decree, capture of Guyanese fishermen and seizure of their vessels. These troubling events and atrocities have happened within one month. It is welcoming to know independent Guyana is not alone and others are there to lend support against Venezuela’s aggression and false claim to two-thirds of our territory, a claim that predates a new nation (May 26, 1966).
Guyanese stand in unison against President Nicolás Maduro’s aggression against our fellow citizens. Guyanese stand in unison against Venezuela’s brazen and false claim to Guyana’s territory and Exclusive Economic Zone. Where Guyanese are divided is the government walking away from a long held foreign policy of non-interference into the internal affairs of another sovereign nation. This became evident when Guyana joined with the United States Donald Trump administration to force the Maduro government out of office.
Guyanese are probably in unison, even if not publicly acknowledged, that the government should get out of Venezuela’s internal affairs and mind our own business. The government too must be careful that though Guyanese are united against Venezuela threats and bullyism many hate the division the government is fermenting in the society.
The truism that a house divided against itself cannot stand should be reverberating in the ears of President Irfaan Ali. The reliance on international support against a foreign border adversary and the taken for granted unison of Guyanese is not reason to ignore forging a united society. Yet the less than one-year old government seems more inclined and determined to pursue internal political division.
The government continues to refuse to meet the main Opposition, the A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition. In its foolhardiness it thinks engaging a group of con-joined small parties that were given less than 5300 votes by the Guyana Elections Commission is equal to or greater than the main APNU+AFC Opposition that was given more than 200,000 votes.
The government claims it is consulting with the political parties in budget preparation but is shutting out the main opposition from participating. It did the same to the duly elected Georgetown Mayor and City Council in its plans for Georgetown. The divisive politics apparently has the support of the small parties, including A New and United Guyana (ANUG). What makes ANUG stands apart from the others is that one of its leaders is none other than Mr. Ralph Ramkarran, who in his post PPP/C life has written extensively about a more inclusive form of government.
Tongues are beginning to wag that those writings and shared thoughts about a less divided country were never sincere but self-serving. The perception is held that those writings were an opportunity to re-enter politics. And where ANUG shares the distinguished position that one of its founding leaders is an advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, small wonder how the party failed to grasp the adverse impact of a divided nation facing down a mighty enemy. International lobbying on sovereignty can do so much and no more about a nation that stands divided.
Internal political division presents opportunity for foes to prey on divisions by flexing their muscles and flaunting their might. Government should know the folly of its internal divisive politics and meddling in Venezuela’s internal affairs could be injurious to the unity of Guyanese and the sovereignty of Guyana.
The folly of the government’s policy is made worse when it is recognised that historically, since independence, both the Opposition and Government shared the same foreign policy towards Venezuela, i.e., non-interference. It was a time, particularly in the pre-1999 years, when the Opposition and Government worked to achieve common ground. These beliefs, these aspirations, are no longer encouraged particularly by the government.
