US diplomacy in the Bahamas not understood
tribune242 editorial
WE RECALL seeing during the Second World War a most effective poster of Uncle Sam, top hat and all, with a cautionary finger to his silent lips and the warning: "Lose lips costs lives."
The leaked diplomatic briefing cables flowing to Washington from the US Embassy on Queen's Street have not cost lives, not even reputations, but have just reaffirmed what Bahamians openly talked during that period about their politicians and the state of their country.
However, many Bahamians seem not to like the fact that their open talk got to the ears of Embassy officials through official channels.
We do not know whether Bahamians who complain about Americans informing Washington about our "dirty linen" really understand the functions of an embassy in a foreign country. Embassies and high commissions are not established just to take care of their own citizens who might find themselves in difficult situations far away from home, or to issue passports and visas. They are also here to promote friendly relations between our two countries, find out what the problems are in the host county as it relates to the embassy's home country so that a potential problem caught early can be settled by discussion and a friendly handshake. For this it is important to get to know the country's leaders, how they view various situations of mutual interest and how far they can be persuaded to be on "your side" when it comes time for that all important vote on various world issues at the UN.
It is a world of friendly persuasion -- for this it is important to know your neighbour, how they think, their ambitions and how far those ambitions can be meshed with your own. And so all these small and big talks -- confidential as both sides thought they were -- are all a part of a day's work in an embassy. In their reporting the US Embassy staff were doing their job -- it is not their fault that their security was breached.
And for Opposition leader Perry Christie to complain that Embassy officials "seem to have taken on the FNM propaganda" about him is not realistic. US diplomats did not have to be told what to think about Mr Christie. Like others they had frequent dealings with him as prime minister, and like all those others, it is no coincidence that most arrive at the same conclusion. In one Embassy report it was said that Mr Christie "has always been weak and indecisive and lacks vision, but is a good man." This happened to be an Ingraham quote, but the same could have been said in all honesty, and without malice, by almost anyone who has ever had to depend upon Mr Christie for a decision. The Americans would have arrived at the same conclusion in their own dealings with him.
During the drug years the performance of the Bahamas government and its citizens was important to the US because it was through the participation of so many Bahamians in the drug trade that American lives were being adversely affected. And so it was important to infiltrate the network, and keep the information flowing during the drug wars. The Americans during that era certainly knew who they could trust and not trust and that is why -- as they did in Afghanistan -- several surprise raids were conducted without their Bahamian counterparts being included in the planning. Probably that is why in the end -- like Tribune staff -- they trusted few in official circles.
It was during that period that Paul Adderley, then Attorney General, made a trip to Washington and came back home breathing fire and brimstone against The Tribune. He accused us of sending Tribune clippings to Washington to keep them informed on our narco-economy. Therefore, we were traitors.
Here at The Tribune at the time, not only were we fighting the drug trade, but we were fighting a government that was trying to close this newspaper down for the position we had taken. We had no time to be a newspaper clipping service for Washington. This was an example of the work of US Embassy staff in their business of keeping Washington informed.
It was during that period that at least two of our anti-drug editorials were read into the records of the US Senate. What Mr Adderley did not realise until the 1984 Commission of Inquiry report into the transshipment of drugs shook him into reality was that in his own government he was daily rubbing elbows with some of this country's real traitors.
Today we think that the Bahamas and the position of its government would be of great interest to the US-- especially with China in a strong position at her backdoor in the Panama Canal, at her front door in the Bahamas, and infiltrated throughout the Caribbean basin. The world's two giant powers are now paddling in what was once America's exclusive zone of influence. For the sake of our country and its people when it comes to a crucial vote in the UN, let's hope that China and the US are on the same side. The day that the Bahamas has to make a choice as to which one it will support, will be the day that it will certainly have to do a mean "Long Island shuffle" to disappear into the shadows.
June 30, 2011
tribune242 editorial
A political blog about Bahamian politics in The Bahamas, Bahamian Politicans - and the entire Bahamas political lot. Bahamian Blogger Dennis Dames keeps you updated on the political news and views throughout the islands of The Bahamas without fear or favor. Bahamian Politicians and the Bahamian Political Arena: Updates one Post at a time on Bahamas Politics and Bahamas Politicans; and their local, regional and international policies and perspectives.