By GHK Lall- Pres. Ali has called for dialogue relative to the situation between Cuba and the US. Instead of reminding Guyana’s number one citizen of the value of dialogue in this deeply divided country, and the leading role he must play in fostering that, the genuine article of talking to one another, another route is chosen. When tensions intensify, and the unstoppable is on the move, dialogue is what’s left standing between catastrophe and sanity. Having a conversation of substance, less for the form of it, and more for how it could stave off the inevitable, is the way to go. Considerations for and against now follow.
It was Chairman Mao Zedong who said that power grows out of the barrel of a gun. In any parley, the one that possesses the bigger guns, and more of them, usually prevails. There are few who willingly consent to dialogue when a gun is pressed against their head. Whatever follows, whatever it’s called, that’s not dialogue. It is dictating, demanding, drowning. Pres. Ali is treated to a gentle reminder. Next door Nicolas, (out of sight is not out of mind, especially with the seeds of covetousness he sowed) had insistently pushed for dialogue with Guyana. And what did Guyana’s Pres. Ali do? Not now, not when circumstances are degrading.
As manufactured. Sure, Venezuelans and Guyanese live in less than a comfortable and conversational state. But, just as surely, don’t pull that fast one about talking and working through issues, when the pressures have been so blatant, so heavy-handed, so domineering and one-sided. In such conditions, there is a dialogue of the deaf: one-sided conversations that nobody hears.
I hear monologue, not dialogue. I am for dialogue. Conversation leads to consensus, which envisions cooperation. Minds coming to a common point, without the coercing at work. It is easy to pretend to be a peacemaker and talk about dialogue. It must be lived. The US and Cuba are external. Guyana’s own internal circumstances reflect deadlock and damn any initiative to improve that situation. It would be enormously helpful if Pres. Ali had compiled a record of deeds supporting his words.
From dialogue I travel backwards to “zone of peace” and the insistent clamors in the early days, now forgotten. In the forefront of zone of peace stood the towering figure of Excellency Ali. He has since become untethered from that post and totters about with words that don’t convince. When that armada of ships and materiel of war are assembled in bristling display in this region, zone of peace just went the way of the Abominable Snowman. Thought to be around, but nowhere to be found.
A caller for peace, a pusher for dialogue, should not be seen and known as being so much in bed with aggressors and predator nations. For then his or her words fall flat. For when a trusted and exceptionally impartial broker (of dialogue and peace) is needed, there is only the dull routine of the ordinary. Like those made into an art form by Pam Bondi and Karen Leavitt (and Kash Patel). It is healthy to hear words that have much volume. When such words, however, represent talking merely for the sake of saying something, anything, then it is just another day in the office, and the drab and jaded taking charge.
For Pres. Ali’s words to have standing, to be given a hearing, he himself must be a paragon of dialogue, of a Guyana where its domestic affairs are of that same thoughtful, inclusive dialogue. May I point to the Speaker of the National Assembly, and his contortions? Or the president himself, and how he honors requests for engagement and intervention in areas of Guyanese life that he has distanced from with energy and clever calculation. If Mr. Dialogue, Dr. Ali, distances from democracy’s non-negotiables in his own domestic forums, then I respectfully tender that he is not the best man to have around when dialogue, zone of peace, and democracy are points of concern. What approaches crisis conditions. What demands a leader by example and a doer and not another frivolous talker.
Finally, I repeat an old position of mine. America comes closest to being the best at calming and steadying a world that is roiling. But, then of all times, America itself must be at its best.
