…on race
Your Eyewitness is very disappointed – but not really surprised – about the continuous harping on “race” to explain anything (perceived) negatively happening in Guyana. In fact, if these accounts are to be believed, race ain’t no variable no mo in our dear Mudland – but a constant! Fella gets robbed as he staggers home from the rum shop? Race! Cocaine discovered in saltfish? Race! Never mind about the cocaine in the vagina.
And we arrive at the constant dismissals and disavowals dragged out from the PPP ever since they were grudgingly allowed to take office five months after they’d been voted in on March 2, 2020. “It ain’t race”!
Your Eyewitness knows we don’t have much experience with changing of governments in Guyana, and the ensuing transitions. After all, the PNC under Burnham and Hoyte rigged their way into power for almost three decades, until finally the latter was forced to allow “free and fair” elections in 1992.
But we then saw the appearance of the new explanatory variable of race for EVERYTHING under the sun. Even before the 2020 election was called, Hamilton Green insisted that the “white man” Jimmy Carter was bent on ousting the PNC. Why? Well, duh – RACE! Carter was just another “Redneck” from the US Deep South who had it in for blacks! And as the PPP attempted to govern and was forced to get rid of some of the “square pegs in round holes” who’d accumulated over the previous 28 years, there came the cries of “ethnic cleansing”!! RACE! Never mind that the said square pegs were all from the PNC’s constituency, and were recruited to augment the already African-skewed Public Service. This had been proven by a survey conducted by the ICJ in 1965.
And never mind that Hoyte had fired more (African) public servants in his five years, at the behest of the IMF, than the PPP did over the course of the 23 years they’d govern Guyana! But NO Race! This would be screamed at the top of the PNC’s lungs at every step of the way in those PPP years. House lots at Paradise? “Race!” cried Hamilton Green. Land at Boerasirie? Race! cried Hoyte. 1997 elections? Race! And of this course, these justified beatings, arson and murders of Indian Guyanese for the next decade! Not race! How dare they support the “racist” PPP?
Which is now back in office, and gotta be RACISTS! Like when over 20,000 GOAL scholarships; over 50,000 house lots given out; 20,000 houses built; roads and infrastructure are built etc – and in EVERY instance, OVER 50% went to African Guyanese!!
Gotta be RACE, innit? But with a twist!!
…to fester
But while the PNC and their camp followers are shouting “race” from the rooftops – which in this era have gravitated into the skies via social media! – they’re deliberately ignoring – or more likely deliberately provoking – the almost inevitable consequence if they continue. To wit, the explosion that followed the 1997 elections. The parallels are uncanny: the 2025 elections are gonna be contested with the PNC insisting “we wuz robbed!”
And the same cries of “PPP supporters getting EVERYTHING” while their supporters get nothing are reverberating!! One rabble rouser keeps harping they don’t have a bank, but what’s stopping them from obtaining the necessary licence from the BoG by showing they have $250M paid up capital and trained personnel in banking? Have they ever applied and been turned down? They should not be fazed by the example of Globe Trust. That failed because of greed, not competence.
But how about New Hayven Bank? Isn’t that being run by a brother?
…for labour
With Guyana open for business and attracting multi-national corporations (MNCs), but forced to bend over, shouldn’t the umbrella trade union bodies bury the hatchet and form a united front for labour rights?
But that would mean – gasp!! – the TUC gotta be concerned more with labour issues and less about political ones!!
