AG’s debunking of now postponed/cancelled “Cuffy 250” malicious forum

Dear Editor,
Mohabir Anil Nandlall, SC, MP, Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, declared that “MY attention was drawn to an invitation to the public by an organisation describing itself as ‘The Cuffy 250 Committee’ to a forum that was supposed to be held on Sunday, August 21. This meeting, as we have now learned, has been prematurely postponed or cancelled”.
The AG added, “The invitation informs that it is the ‘9th annual forum on the state of African Guyanese’. (And that) “Invitees are requested to discuss ‘Resisting the Emerging Apartheid State.’
Anil Nandlall’s justified and legal wrath is centred on the actual theme (that was to be), “Resisting the Emerging Apartheid State,” as a description of conditions in Guyana.
Anil Nandlall embraced Mr. Floyd Haynes’s decision to refuse the invitation to participate, as he, too, is completely rejecting the odiously untenable and fallacious phrase, ‘Resisting the Emerging Apartheid State’ to describe conditions in Guyana. Haynes seemed livid, stating, “In my view, this statement is a disservice to all Guyanese; as such, I wish to categorically dissociate myself from it. More importantly, I am a firm supporter of His Excellency the President of Guyana, and I am absolutely convinced that it is not part of the President’s agenda to create any disparity based on race.”
Now comes my take on the issue, and I hope to provoke some serious considerations and responses. First, it is that the AG almost belatedly came to the ‘party.’ He should have been apprised (like ASAP) of this development. It was well advertised and promoted. So, my umbrage is that the Government media failed to pick up on it, neither did the “candid” and “independent” reporters “jump” on this distasteful and incitingly planned forum with its horrible topic.
I firmly believe that NCN, Chronicle and the DPI are simply perfunctory, non-combative, and ill-equipped. They seem to be lacking in ‘media savvy’ and they are all failing to realise and internalise the ‘real issues’ of the day. As far as outreach goes, the Government media has the tiniest of audiences.
Getting back to the AG, I really do welcome his erudite response on the issue. He was succinct, terse, and most importantly, as is his wont, he took a legal stand on the issue. Noting that “Apart from the patent falsehood inherent in the theme, I am of the considered view that the entire discussion likely to ensue (for now it will not) would be proscribed not only by the ordinary laws of Guyana, but by the supreme law, the Constitution.” He quite accurately informed all that “Apartheid” is defined by the New Oxford Dictionary of English as “A policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race.” And indeed, as he added, we all know that “Historically, this phrase is used to describe a one-time government policy in South Africa.”
What was poignant is that the AG pointed out that “Where Guyana is concerned, Article 149 of the Constitution guarantees protection to every citizen against discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnicity, religion etc.” Also, we must internalise that “The State of Guyana has signed and ratified every major international treaty in this hemisphere which outlaws racial and ethnic discrimination.”
I think there should be a “call-in” show, Government sponsored too, where the AG can take calls and educate the public that indeed “Many of these treaties (he alludes to) form part of the Fourth Schedule of the Guyana Constitution…(and that) Article 154 of that Constitution binds the Executive, the Legislature, the Judiciary, and all organs and agencies of Government to respect and uphold those rights…(as) “All persons, institutions and political parties are prohibited from taking any action, or advancing, disseminating or communicating any idea which may result in racial or ethnic division among the people.”
Editor, an August 20th letter to the editor in the local media “Debunking the evil of Cuffy 250” preceded the AG’s dissertation. The writer was on target and in synchrony with the AG. He invoked the Government’s clear-cut policy of no-discrimination. He pointed to what is happening within the country in the areas of land distribution/ titling and education. What was very timely was his reminder of the ‘Because We Care’ cash grant, where Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, vowed that each child in the public school system would benefit from this yearly and ever-increasing rollout. Priya, the writer noted, emphatically emphasised that “Whether you’re African, Chinese, Indo-Guyanese, Amerindian, Portuguese, Mixed, you will leave here with your cash grant, because we’re not asking about your ethnicity. This morning, whether you are Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Rastafarian, nothing or Baháí, once your children are in school, you will leave here with the cash grant.”
Again, kudos to the AG, who went full throttle in delineating that the current Administration is most averse to anything discriminatory. So let me finish off by going back to the Rodney Commission of Inquiry.
I think our memory is fresh. It was in May 2016, and only after lots of dalliance from the then APNU/AFC Government and some three months after the Commission of Inquiry Report was received that the said APNU/AFC Government finally handed over the report to the then House Speaker Dr. Barton Scotland, to be properly laid in the National Assembly. I add that pressure from the then Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) led to this, and even so, erstwhile Attorney General Basil Williams insisted that the Report was flawed and will be challenged. This begs the logical question, “Which Government is pro-African?”
The details of that saga show that even before this Report was laid out, the PNCR, the main component of the Opposition Coalition at that time, avowed repeatedly that it was not going to participate in the Commission of Inquiry into the death of Walter Rodney. So, yet again, my question looms up, “Who is really on the side of Afro-Guyanese?” And therefore, “From whence cometh the idea of an ‘Emerging Apartheid’ State’?”
May I remind people, as did the AG, that this country is the vanguard anti-discrimination land, as “Guyana’s Constitution establishes a broad-based Ethnic Relations Commission to which the citizenry can complain against racial, ethnic, and other forms of discrimination”. Also, that “The (said) Commission has a wide plenitude of powers to investigate those complaints, and to take remedial actions.”
I challenge readers to cogitate on the reality that a total of over three decades of rulership was in the hands of the PNC and APNU combined. In all of those years, Afro-Guyanese were left indigent, and their villages, at times, were like ghost towns. Contrast all of this with what are now the happenings in Golden Grove, Buxton, Agricola and Linden etc.  I rest my case with reminders that I wish for a call-in programme with the AG leading the way, and for the Government media to be more pro-active, profound and immediate.

Yours truly,
Deodat Singh