In one of the closest votes ever for the position – 56 to 43 with one Democratic abstention, former ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson was ratified as the 69th Secretary of State of the USA. With Donald Trump, the President, who nominated him, clearly determined to effect a quantum leap in the conduct of American foreign policy, both procedurally and substantively, Tillerson will definitely be one of the key members in the US Cabinet over the next four years.
As such, it ought to be a matter of satisfaction that Guyana, normally one of the countries that have to figuratively flail its arms in the air to catch the attention of such officials, has already achieved that goal. It was during Tillerson’s stint at the head of ExxonMobil that oil was struck off our shores in the Stabroek field and he personally announced it as the most significant one for his company last year. While, as is required by American law, Tillerson has quit as head of the oil giant – the largest in the world – it would be foolish to think that he would have forgotten Guyana, a country he is said to have quietly visited.
Tillerson’s confirmation was unusually tense – and only garnered four Democrats who switched – in the vote that split along partisan lines. But this tight vote merely mirrors the dichotomy in the two parties’ views of the President’s new course. Not so incidentally, Tillerson’s choice as Secretary of State exemplifies one of the major planks in Trump’s new world vision. Trump played the role of the boy who announced “the king had no clothes”, when he questioned the bases for the US not normalising relations with Russia. He is evidently of the view that the American posture is one that merely continues an orientation and course of action that were honed during the Cold War, which ended with the US’s victory in 1989.
The Russians no longer follow the Marxist-Leninist line in any sphere – including most significantly, economics. In fact, of all the countries that emerged from the fall of the “Iron Curtain”, Russia has arguably adopted the capitalist path of development more fervently than most. Tillerson’s ExxonMobil was one of the US companies that took advantage of Russia’s ideological volte-face and personally crafted a mega US0 million energy deal with that country. He was subsequently awarded the Order of Friendship by President Vladmir Putin for his efforts, the highest honour a foreign national can receive in that country.
Unfortunately, the US imposed sanctions on Russia following the latter’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and ExxonMobil was forced to place its investment on hold. The company did commit to returning and continuing to develop the fields, however, once sanctions are lifted. During the campaign, Trump signalled he would lift those sanctions.
For Guyana, Tillerson’s experience with a post-Soviet leader in a post-ideologically fixated world that has abandoned the East-West and left-right binaries is going to prove crucial in our own efforts to normalise relations with the USA. Tillerson knows from personal experience with leaders such as Putin and a host of officials and business leaders he would have encountered and interacted with in Russia, that leaders in the West must go past the old communist bogeyman and deal frontally with real-life challenges in a globalised world such as Marx could not have conceived of.
Now that Guyana has gotten a free pass in having the attention of one of the key figures in the Trump Administration, it is our hope that they do not muddy the waters by invoking rhetoric and stances from a bygone era. With Trump also deciding to make radical changes in his dealings with what he had defined as “radical Islam”, Tillerson will have his hands full. Guyanese leaders should focus on dealing with the development of Guyana in so that its citizens do not have to be seduced to the “dark side” of whatever concoction.
