Foreign policy or opportunism?

THE EDITOR: If Basdeo Panday believes politics has a morality of its own, then Kamla Persad-Bissessar, in her support for self-proclaimed interim president of Venezuela, Juan Guaido, must surely believe that foreign policy also has a morality of its own.

However, if one conducts foreign policy, politics, or any other professional pursuits based solely on one’s sense of personal morality, as witnessed by Guaido’s disrespect for the Venezuelan people’s will as demonstrated in the 2013 democratic election of Nicolas Maduro as president, then the will of the people could be subverted at a whim to the benefit of personal morality.

Self-proclaimed morality, even if thinly-veiled, is indeed opportunism and always succumbs to expediency when it is opportune to do so.

In 2010, Persad-Bissessar was democratically elected prime minister of TT, not by way of public agitation and US sanctions, but by the ballot box, a process firmly supported by the people of TT.

Instead of standing firm in support of the sanctity of the Venezuelan electoral process, Persad-Bissessar has opted for the expediency of TT trade and foreign policy with a morality of its own. Her support for self-appointed president Guaido demonstrates the bankruptcy of personal morality and exposes it for what it is – expediency of opportunism.

Persad-Bissessar cautions:

“Today I tell Rowley, Faris and Camille that while you and your family hold diplomatic passports and you are provided with immunity, over 200,000 of our citizens hold ordinary passports with US tourist visas. So, you want to know what Trump could do to them?

“I tell this Government while you wine and dine off taxpayers’ dollars in fancy restaurants, 70 per cent of all our food is imported from the US at an annual cost of over US$1 billion (TT$7 billion). So, you want to know what Trump could do?

That “participation in CBI requires among other things a waiver of certain WTO1 conditions.” And that TT’s current waiver will expire in 2021.

“That the US President and Congress have to approve renewing the agreement. And you want to know what Trump could do?” (Express, January 28, 2019)

Foreign policy based upon fear and intimidation is one based on expediency, opportunism for electoral benefits for Persad-Bissessar versus what is best for the people of TT.

One TT professor with an apparent morality of his own is Prof Selwyn Cudjoe. A renowned scholar of socialist Karl Marx and CLR James, one would have thought that Cudjoe would be in full solidarity with the Venezuelan working class and its democratically elected socialist president, Maduro. Instead, Cudjoe instructs us:

“…T&T’s support of Nicolas Madero’s (sic) illegitimate presidency sends a disturbing and dangerous signal to our citizens at home and abroad. This action, too, says a lot to the kind of citizens we create.” (Express, January 15)

Cudjoe should be reminded that the “citizens” of TT have demonstrated their support for the ballot box. Even if Venezuela’s election was purportedly flawed, as was said of the US 2016 election, with Donald Trump’s win attributed to Russian intervention, should those election results be declared “illegitimate?”

Cudjoe should acknowledge that what sends a “disturbing and dangerous signal to our citizens” is the attempt to overthrow the elected president of Venezuela by means of zealous street demonstrators and US sanctions.

In certain quarters Cudjoe’s public support for the overthrow would surely boost his transition from Marx to Market. (See his attack on TT workers, “Killing the goose that laid the golden egg; Trinidad Express, September 1, 2018.)

If Maduro is overthrown and a protracted military offensive ensues as occurred in Syria, the major winners will be Guaido and Exxon Mobil; the losers could be hundreds if not thousands of Venezuelans dead, alongside a destabilised TT overrun by Venezuelan immigrants and guns. Persad-Bissessar and Cudjoe should think seriously about this.

Foreign policy might have a morality of its own, but Persad-Bissessar’s support for Guaido’s ongoing illegal attempt to overthrow the elected government of Venezuela by way of sanctions and demonstrations runs contrary to TT’s demonstrated support for the ballot box. This “says a lot to the kind of citizens we create.” Persad-Bissessar and Cudjoe should reconsider their support for this illegal manoeuvre.

EDMUND NARINE via e-mail