Neither Hinds nor Ogunseye has any place in politics in Guyana

Dear Editor,
This is not the first time that I am commenting on race relations in Guyana. I did so as long ago as in 1994, some 31 years ago, in a series published by Kampta Karran on “Offerings Race and Ethnic Studies in Guyana”; then in 2015, when the Granger government held a Roundtable on what they called “Social Cohesion for Lasting Unity and Peace”; then again, almost five years ago, on a national conversation on Challenges to and Recommendations for Ethnic Harmony, a video conference hosted by the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) on 14th and 15th December, 2020.
I made the point then, and I am making it again, that “I speak for myself as a Guyanese, not as a spokesperson for any ethnic group”.
I am prompted to speak once more as a result of the ugly racial remarks made recently by Dr. David Hinds, the not surprising support from Takuma Ogunseye, and the very surprising support from Lelon Saul.
On each of the previous occasions, I have pointed out that “if any party which we democratically elect and the party in opposition intend to achieve ethnic harmony and rid our country of entrenched racism, they must both accept the ugly reality that we remain a dangerously divided nation, and must both determine to reach across the divide”.
Ravi Dev, in last Sunday’s Stabroek News, has made the same point, observing that the racist declarations of Hinds and company “represent a stubborn refusal to practise realistic democratic multiethnic politics in our new demographic dispensation”, and that “neither the PPP nor any party dominated by a single ethnic group, such as the PNC, can now garner the 50%+1 demanded by democratic elections to govern the country”.
In simple language, any political party hoping to win an election in today’s Guyana must represent the interests of every Guyanese, regardless of ethnic origin, class, or creed.
The People’s Progressive Party, led by Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, has done just that. Every single Guyanese has, since 2020, been benefitting from the development programmes launched by each budget of this government; devoid of any consideration of ethnic origin, social class, or religion, reaching across the entire country.
President Irfaan Ali, for instance, has made a point of visiting, mixing, and communing in almost every village, town and city, with every Guyanese from end to end of our country in his quest to demonstrate what he means by “One Guyana”, and the extended hand of welcome has been offered to him without exception.
Lelon Saul, employing innuendo and euphemisms, naming no political party but making it pellucid as to which he refers, upholds and justifies Hinds’s naked racism, saying that Hinds’s use of the term “Lick Bottom” is “an act of love…urging African Guyanese to hold power accountable even when it resides in familiar hands”.
Whose power? Accountable for what? His meaning is, however, clear and equally dangerous in that it embraces a racist agenda aimed at dividing a multiracial country for political purpose.
Hinds and Ogunseye have long ago disqualified themselves from asking the people of Guyana to vote for them or any political party to which they attach themselves. They were both part of the Granger government, condemned by the entire democratic world and every Guyanese committed to democracy for having tried to steal the 2020 elections.
They were both complicit, two years ago, in appealing to our security forces to attempt to remove an elected government from office. They both pursue an ugly, contemptible, racist and divisive agenda in the name of falsely representing the interest of Guyanese of African descent. Neither has any place in the politics of our country.

Yours sincerely,
Kit Nascimento