Kwame’s encapsulation vindicates PPP/C as non-racist

Dear Editor,
Minister Kwame McCoy’s Dec 08, 2022 letter, “APNU+AFC placed a target on Afro-Guyanese professionals in public service”, is a timely reminder that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic is all about destroying racism in Guyana. The Minister desires “…that Guyanese confront the dirty washed-up wolf (APNU+AFC), seeking to disguise (itself) as a sheep, which is seeking to uproot our democracy through race-baiting campaigns to divide our country.”
Well, in many ways these attempts are happening, and sometimes in such a natural way that it takes a Kwame-like letter to bring alertness to reality. So, in like manner, I add my voice to this issue: that is, the PPP/C is all bent on uniting Guyana.
Editor, before coming to the commendations of Dr. Marcel Hutson (alluded to by Minister Kwame), who richly heaped praise on President Dr. Irfaan Ali (while at the same time lavished opprobrious comments on APNU+AFC), I am forced to revisit (just one) earlier incident, the August 2022 ‘Cuffy 250’ forum with its theme, “Resisting the emerging apartheid state”. In this ugly recall, I invoke the outrage of Floyd Haynes, who distanced himself from that acrimonious forum that never really had a chance to take off.
Haynes, an upright and exemplary Afro-Guyanese, described the theme as ludicrous and vexatious at its best. Haynes in fact wrote the Chairman of the Committee, Norman Ng-A-Qui, “…protesting his (assumed) inclusion in the line-up of speakers at the forum that was scheduled for August 21st, calling for the immediate removal of his name.” Haynes at the time detailed that he “…completely rejected the phrase ‘resisting the emerging apartheid state’ to describe conditions in Guyana.” He emphasised that “In my view, this statement is a disservice to all Guyanese, as such, (and hence) I wish to categorically disassociate 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.”
This is exactly the sentiments of Dr. Marcel Hutson. He stated that “After August 2020, still shaken by what the coalition did, (my) flagging spirits were revived by a call from President Dr. Irfaan Ali. Out of sheer compassion, I heard President Ali say: ‘You cannot finish like this. Go to Priya.’ I did, and she welcomed me with open arms. The President and I had no prior relationship, yet he reached out to me. Others (APNU+AFC) tried to bury me, but did not know I was a seed.” I need not say anymore. Dr. Hutson, like Floyd Haynes, has summarised it well.
Editor, as I am on the subject of education, I recall when the PPP/C took office in August 2020, there was the resounding policy of ‘No Discrimination’ in the distribution of the ‘Because We Care’ cash grant. This sentiment was expressed by Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand, as she vowed that each child in the public school system must benefit from this yearly and ever-increasing rollout.
She declared then 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…whether you are Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Rastafarian, nothing or Baháí, once your children are in school, you will receive the cash grant.” She went on to state that “We are here to give every single nursery, primary, secondary-age child who’s in a public school, or applied to come to a public school, this grant.”
In contrast, let us recall what took place in November 2018. That was when the former Minister of Public Health and Chairwoman of the People’s National Congress (PNC), Volda Lawrence, sounded the warning that “The only friends I got is PNC, so the only people I gon give wuk to is PNC; and right now I looking for a doctor who can talk Spanish or Portuguese, and ah want one that is PNC.” Lawrence later apologized, but that apology did not erase her and her party’s duplicity and discrimination, reflective of their hidden apartheid.
So I am with Mr. McCoy, as indeed “The truth has slapped the detractors in the APNU+AFC in the face. No longer can they keep up the shenanigans and pretense about caring for the advancement of Afro-Guyanese, when in fact they have worked silently, and in some cases openly, to destroy Afro-Guyanese professionals in the public service and elsewhere.” It’s a fact that “The scars of the failed APNU+AFC regime are still fresh, and haunt many Afro-Guyanese professionals who lost their jobs to PNC members. But now Dr. Irfan and company are healing these wounds.

Yours truly,
H Singh