Smoldering embers could become a raging wild fire

Last week, at a press conference, the President of Guyana, Irfaan Ali told Guyanese that they should not excite themselves about stories of invasion and related military and other works carried out by Venezuela. He encouraged the public to pay attention only to information from the government and the Guyana Defence Force. To be fair, it was good advice except that, the government has not been saying much about this very troubling issue. As well, there appears to be no national comprehensive communication plan to keep Guyanese properly informed about the political, diplomatic and military dynamics of the situation, and the progress the government is making to moblise much- needed support, in the Caribbean and further afield, to help it protect Guyana territorial right and integrity. 

While the President is trying to get Guyanese to shun other non- formal sources of news and information about this issue, he has been saying precious little to fill in the gap caused by this paucity of information from government sources. Naturally then, those non- formal sources have been facilitating widespread sharing of information about the activities of Venezuela on this clear absurdity. 

It is settled knowledge that in some cases, non- formal sources of information, in a corporation, a community, or a country can have more influence on perceptions, beliefs and actions of people towards a particular object than the formal sources. This has caused political and corporate leaders to invest billions of dollars to sustain a certain rhythm and flow of information among employees and citizens. members. The same is true about nations. This point is amply demonstrated in the mammoth protests, of tens of millions of people, taking place all over the world against Israel’s approach (flattening Gaza, killing women and children among other strange things) to the attack by Hamas, on October 7, 2023. In spite of reports from rich, power Western media and formal governmental sources about Hamas, and Israel’s right to defend itself, the people of the world are seeing pictures and hearing the stories of the Palestinians through non – formal sources, especially when Israel took out the power and cut communication. That information is fueling the protests. The leaders of many countries including France have had to rethink their position on the war in Gaza.

In Venezuela, the President, Nicolas Maduro and his government have already carried out a mock simulation of the voting arrangement for the impending referendum to illegally claim our Essequibo. 

They are mobilising their people to claim a land, whose soil is nourished by the blood of our ancestors. In the face of all of smoldering embers fanned by greed and maliciousness, on the part of Venezuela, the government of Guyana remains nonchalant and complacent. However, if one looks at the posture of the government from a historical perspective then one would understand why. The PPP has never been about nation building, patriotism or nationalism. It has always been bad at good governance. It is precisely too why they found no difficulty to attempt to replace our national motto: One People, One Nation, One Destiny with one Guyana. Guyana is facing a real and dangerous threat yet the government is busy doing every thing other than sitting with critical stakeholders to hammer out a necessary strategy to manage this crisis. Besides wearing military fatigue, the president is busying himself hopping from one conference to the next. To date, the government has not even put together a joint team of government officials, members of the opposition and civil society to travel overseas and request support from members of the international community. Instead, the Vice President has held his most recent press conference (Thursday, November 15, 2023) to defend his utterances, which appear to have compromised our national integrity. 

 The President or members of his government has not visited the affected region, to talk to citizens there. Instead, we hear about the government working with the University of Miami to do a plan for Silica City. Some of my detractors would argue that we cannot stop develop because of this threat; it a good argument. But in the face of this present and gathering danger shouldn’t the government review its national priorities?

Little wonder, that certain members of CARICOM find it difficult to be definitive about their support for Guyana, in the face of this naked aggression from Venezuela. In fact, when a Prime Minister of a sister CARICOM country was asked about his position on the threat and his support for Guyana. His answer revealed that he was more concerned about Guyana’s internal political affairs: a matter, it seems, more personal to him, and of a higher value than Venezuela’s erroneous claim of our Essequibo. But if the government appears to be scarcely concerned to the point where, there is no strategy to reach out to friends and make alliances, to tell our story and mobilse assistance then what should we expect of others? For in as much, the leaders of other CARICOM states would pledge their support, no one should forget that they too have their own national interests to protect; we must protect ours. Unless we begin to move forward in that direction then smoldering embers beyond our borders could become a raging wild fire, which could spread across two- thirds of our territory.