Extending a handshake to signal peace
Letters
Dear Editor,
Oftentimes, a gesture as simple as a handshake can resonate with tremendous importance in politics to signal peace. Symbols are important especially in Guyana.
Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton’s complaint that President Irfaan Ali bullied him into a handshake only reveals what a bumbling idiot he is. Ironically Norton is a former Foreign Affairs employee and is very familiar with diplomatic protocol.
Historically, the most important handshake in American history occurred in China on February 21, 1972 during President Richard Nixon’ visit.
In the past all had not been honkey dorie with China-American relations. America had had a staunch anti China policy since the Communists achieved power in 1949. Historically John Foster Dulles — President Dwight Eisenhower’s secretary of state and a staunch anti-communist — refused to shake Chinese Prime Minister Chou En Lai’s hand at a conference in Geneva in 1954. Dulles later quipped that the only time he’d meet with Chou would be if their cars accidentally collided. Dulles was also the US secretary of state when the British Guiana constitution was suspended in October 1953. Anti communist Sir Winston Churchill was Prime Minister of England and he dispatched gunboats to British Guiana.
Just 18 years later President Richard Nixon — President Eisenhower’s vice president and a credentialed anti-communist in his own right — was on his historic overture to China. When the President’s plane Air Force One landed in China, Chou was standing on the tarmac personally waiting to greet Nixon. Nixon insisted he and his wife, clad in a bright red long overcoat, be the first to depart the plane, and ordered his Secret Service to block the exit until he had deplaned. He personally delivered the long overdue handshake. Today China is a world superpower rivaling America.
It was high drama, and Nixon knew it. He also understood that the handshake signaled a break from past American policies he helped to advocate and shape.
All Guyanese who follow politics hope we have a chance to witness another handshake between the Opposition Leader and President Irfan Ali to return Guyana to cordiality and good manners.
Yours respectfully,
Sultan Mohamed
