Publications to help raise veil of secrecy over foreign policy
Wednesday's launching of five publications by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is being seen as a signal move in the government's efforts to heighten awareness of various aspects of the country's foreign policy. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Clement Rohee who gave the feature address described the publications as the ongoing effort of his Ministry to raise the veil of secrecy over the country's foreign policy and bring it into the public domain. He said that it was even more important that if the government was to get support for the policies it was pursuing given the active borders on its east and west, it had to ensure that it took the population into its confidence. One of the five publications launched by the Ministry at the Foreign Service Institute has been described by University of Guyana lecturer, Dr Michael Scott, as a "must" read. The publication is - Guyana's approach from Singapore to Seattle - World Trade Negotiations - and Dr Scott said it "must be read for a good understanding of contemporary global negotiations." "It provides vivid accounts of a current forum; a contemporary issue and real players with different agendas." He said too an article in the publication by Martin Khor which examines the approach which Guyana took through Foreign Minister Rohee, then chairman of the Group of 77 and China "captures the Minister at his strident best as advocate, forceful, forthright, unyielding in his role with an agenda of the triple `R' - Review, Repair and Reform." "The intrigues of the `green room' and the `blue room' led to its transformation to a `red room' of angry representatives of developing countries and made it red hot in Seattle." He said that Guyana's approach of involving all sectors of the society in an uphill struggle for fair trade as against fearing trade was evidenced by non-governmental organisations' involvement during the lead-up to Seattle when it chaired the G-77 as well as the post-Seattle debriefing. About another publication - In Defence of Guyana's Sovereignty and Territorial Integrity: The Guyana - Suriname Maritime Boundary Dispute - Dr Scott said it is a chronicle of recent and current developments in Guyana-Suriname relations. The principles of sovereignty and the peaceful settlement of disputes are combined with developmental imperatives in this publication, he said. Also, it tacitly underlined the role of the press "particularly when truth is often the first casualty of impending conflict or actual conflict situations." Another - The Remigrants Information Booklet - Dr Scott said should be put online and updated as appropriate. Rohee in his feature address said that the booklet was intended as a one-stop information booth where remigrants could get information about resettling in Guyana and so avoid the "royal run-around" to which some claim they are subjected. The more voluminous of the publications - Guyana and the Group of 77 - Dr Scott said underlined Guyana's commitment to a transnational approach to development and to multilateralism. Dr Scott praised the Foreign Ministry for launching the set of publications which included a set of speeches by Rohee from 1996-1999, as part of its efforts to help the Guyanese people to understand the reality in which they live. "In our time it is a domestic reality which is globalised where the borders and barriers between the domestic and global are rather more hindrances and not obstacles, both physically and phenomenally." President Bharrat Jagdeo announced the campaign last week and said that it would be shared by the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Education and Information. Stabroek News understands that this campaign could involve the review of material which had been prepared and circulated in previous years which heightened awareness of Guyana's borders and mobilised the Guyanese people in defence of this country's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
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