Major national security conference under way

By Robert Bazil
Guyana Chronicle
April 27, 2000


PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday opened a major U.S.-backed conference on national security in Georgetown declaring that the forum is not a shift in policy and Guyana was not "giving up" its sovereignty to the United States.

"Many of you may be asking is this a new shift in policy? Are we giving up our sovereignty to the United States of America?

"The answer is no," he told participants at the three-day meeting at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel.

"...We are trying to capitalise on the methodological approach that we used when we started our work on the National Development Strategy," he said.

Opposition parties, including the main People's National Congress (PNC), business and civic groups, the military, police and other law enforcement agencies, and the media are represented at the conference and are actively involved in group working discussions.

The conference is on `Guyana: Developing a Sustainable National Security Strategy'.

At the opening session, the President recalled that a working group on a national development strategy was established several years ago with technical assistance from the Carter Center headed by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

Noting that discussions were held and are ongoing, Mr Jagdeo said what was important at that time was that the government needed some expertise that may not have been available here.

"My government...and...I do not have any problem using expertise from any part of the world, but what was so important (was) that in the National Development Strategy (NDS) the work was done by Guyanese," he said.

He said Dr Kenneth King, a former Economic Development Minister when the PNC was in government and now a key lead person in the NDS, which is due to be completed soon, could testify to the Guyanese nature of the strategy.

The President explained that again Guyana would like to use the approach of the U.S. Government helping to facilitate the current security discussion, but the actual work has to be done by Guyanese participants.

Pointing out that for Guyana to move forward there must be consensus on certain areas like the kind of economic policy the country is going to pursue, Mr Jagdeo said that if there is a change of government at any time, the new administration would not have to rethink everything and change much economic policy.

"This has affected many Third World countries...with changes in government they tend to reverse what the previous government may have done even if it is sometimes a good thing, simply because of a need to show that there is change."

"...We want to avoid that in Guyana, that is why we have taken so much time and we have involved so many people from civil society in the deliberations of the NDS...once that document is handed over by the end of the year, it will be taken to Parliament for full debate," he said.

The President pointed to the country's current difficulties and constraints to spending more on national security areas, noting that although Guyana's fiscal deficit has come down, the country has to borrow or get grants to fill the difference.

Observing that nobody will lend money to finance defence, he reiterated that any increase in defence spending has to come from revenue or internal borrowing.

But in this year's budget, 42 per cent of Guyana's revenue is budgeted to service external debt, he said.

He recalled that the current forum for the development of a sustainable national security strategy started from a `think tank' in the Defence Secretariat where ideas emerged.

These included the need for a small professional army with a larger reserve and for the military supporting law enforcement agencies within the context of the Defence Act, he said.

President Jagdeo said while external threats are clearly defined, factors like removing preferences for Guyana's commodities are also a threat to its security.

There is also an external economic threat from rising international prices which cause foreign exchange incomes of some countries to drop and people's real wages to be reduced, he said.

He welcomed the PNC's participation in the seminar and thanked the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies (CHDS) from Washington, the United States Southern Command and the United States Embassy here for their involvement.

Home Affairs Minister, Mr Ronald Gajraj said the principal objective of the seminar is to concentrate on national security development which constitutes the "ground norm" of the national security process.

For this purpose, consensus of participants drawn from various sectors of society including the government, opposition parties, academia, media, civic leaders and the security forces is encouraged, he said.

The minister emphasised that global changes coupled with local conditions make it imperative for countries such as Guyana to review their national security strategy to meet the challenges of developing democratic societies having regard to their peculiar national socio-economic and geo-political factors.

Against this background, Guyana, though not singularly privileged, is none-the-less fortunate to be facilitated by the CHDS in mapping out the skeleton framework for a national security strategy that will be subsequently fleshed out, he said.

"Because the intention is for the evolution and eventual development of such a national security strategy to benefit from the widest possible meaningful consultations among, and contributions from respected representatives from various strata of society, the Government of Guyana, in conjunction with the...co-sponsors, completed a list of invitees as reflected in you distinguished ladies and gentlemen gathered here today," he said.

Gajraj said that as Chairman of the Organising Committee, he hopes the seminar will provide a forum and stimulus for meaningful and animated dialogue from which an infrastructure in which a Guyanese National Security Policy and Strategy can be developed.

Military Professor and Executive Officer with the CHDS, Colonel William Spracher said this is the first such forum that the centre has been able to do in English - the three others were held in Colombia, El Salvador and Paraguay.

The CHDS is pleased to have a role in educating principally civilian, but also military and police, officials from nations through the North, South and Central America and the Caribbean, on matters of security and defence, hopefully arming them to work with the knowledge that will permit them to participate fully in the process, he said.

"We strive to teach our fellows how to think, not what to think; our University President, Lieutenant General Chilcoat, insists that this be our methodology," Spracher told participants.

Consequently, the CHDS' role in the workshop will be to facilitate the discussions and to help participants achieve what they want to get out of this process, in addition to assisting in establishing a framework for the subsequent development of a national strategy.

"We look forward to a productive seminar and the chance to get to know you and your concerns much better," he said.