JLP's emerging foreign policy

Published in the Jamaica Gleaner: Sunday | July 29, 2007

Karl Samuda of the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) has dipped his and the party's toes, albeit tentatively, into an area that the election campaign had not previously ventured: the realm of foreign policy.

That is a good thing, and more is needed, for there are substantial issues affecting Jamaica's future to be addressed.

Mr. Samuda has told this newspaper that, should the JLP win the August 27 general election, the new administration will not kick the Venezuelans out of Jamaica.

The last time, of course, that Jamaica broke diplomatic relations with a country was in 1981, when a JLP government, under Edward Seaga, told the Cubans here to go home, ostensibly because Havana was harbouring Jamaican criminals.

The previous year, in the immediate aftermath of the JLP's election victory in the ideologically driven campaign, Mr. Seaga expelled Cuba's then ambassador, Ulysses Estrada, who had been accused of becoming involved in Jamaica's internal affairs.

Much has happened, to be sure, in the nearly three decades since those dramatics. The Cold War ended and Mr. Seaga held cordial meetings here in the 1990s with Cuban President Fidel Castro. There are, nonetheless, a few parallels between the view of Cuba during the hot days of the Cold War and today's Venezuela under President Hugo Chávez, an open admirer and friend of the aged and ailing Castro.

Mr. Chávez has said he is building a Bolivarian socialist revolution in Venezuela and has been using his country's oil income to subsidise services to the poor. He has been nationalising firms. He has also clashed repeatedly with the United States whose President, George W. Bush, he often addresses in the most uncomplimentary tones.

But Chávez has also been busy building relations in Latin America and the Caribbean, sharing his country's oil wealth with the region, including Jamaica, under the PetroCaribe initiative.

In the process, Chávez has clearly not endeared himself to the current JLP leadership - and for more than the language he has used against President Bush.

For instance, when Jamaica joined its Caribbean Community (CARICOM) partners in supporting Venezuela for a seat on the United Nations Security Council against Guatemala, both Samuda and JLP's leader, Bruce Golding, castigated the Jamaican government. The administration, they suggested, was bartering principle for Venezuelan handouts. The JLP has also questioned other Jamaica/Venezuela initiatives.

It is not enough, therefore, for Samuda to say that a JLP administration would maintaindiplomatic relations with Caracas.

Among the issues to be addressed is whether the programmes under PetroCaribe would be maintained, including the sale of 49 per cent of the Petrojam oil refinery to Venezuelan state oil company, PDVSA. These issues are crucial because much of the development trajectory of the current administration is predicated on these schemes.

We expect to hear, too, a definitive position from the JLP on the Caribbean Community and the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, especially in the context of the rapid move by members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States for deeper integration.

Another matter is the Caribbean Court of Justice, on which the Opposition should declare whether or not it is an opponent.

There are also wider foreign-policy issues which are important to Jamaica, particularly in these days of globalisation, that have blurred the line between matters that are domestic and foreign.

The opinions on this page, except for the above, do not necessarily reflect the views of The Gleaner. To respond to a Gleaner editorial, email us: editor@gleanerjm.com or fax: 922-6223. Responses should be no longer than 400 words. Not all responses will be published.