NY Guyana Democracy Project debunks Brooklyn meeting’s race charge

Dear Editor,
The New York-based Guyana Democracy Project debunks a charge of racism levelled against the Guyana Government by a Brooklyn-based Guyanese group at a political rally on October 30 in Flatbush.
At the Town Hall meeting in Brooklyn, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries and others unjustifiably accused the PPPC Administration of ‘race discrimination’ and other wrongdoings. The accusations are unsubstantiated, the evidence is lacking. The PPPC Government’s Cabinet reflects the diversity of the country’s population. Not only that, the Public Service, the Police Force, the army, the Prison Service the teaching and nursing professions are dominated by Afro-Guyanese. How could this racial discrimination happen when these services are more than fairly distributed?
As Guyanese who love our country and who have been following developments in Guyana for decades, we are extremely disappointed that you in the USA could make such careless comments, and we are very concerned that they might unwittingly be creating race tension and hatred in Guyana.
The reality is that Guyana has seen the greatest progress in its history during the terms of the PPPC Administration. The Opposition PNCR’s historical record is that of electoral rigging and incompetence. They governed Guyana for 33 years since 1964, and have very little to show for that period. The most notable rigging by PNCR occurred in the post-March 2nd, 2020 elections, which the former Jamaican PM Bruce Golding described as a most transparent attempt to steal an election. This blatant attempt was condemned by the US Embassy, all the Western diplomatic missions, the Carter Center, the Commonwealth, the OAS, the Mandela Foundation and 100 countries.
The PPPC, on the other hand, governed for 23 years and brought the country out of bankruptcy and authoritarianism, and returned it to democracy in the 1990s after 28 years of PNCR dictatorship. GDP grew at an annual average of 5% under PPPC governance.
During the current PPPC term in office (August 2020 to date), the Government has initiated the development and transformative projects in several PNC Afro-Guyanese strongholds, as well as in Amerindian-Guyanese communities. Development reaches every community in Guyana. The Government allocated, for example, 11,000 house lots so far, and over 50% were given to Afro-Guyanese, even though they account for only 29% of the population. The Government awarded 6,000 scholarships at all levels, and 39% of those were given to Afro-Guyanese, who account for only 29% of the population.
The current Government is doing a remarkable job, as attested to by the results of a recent October NACTA Poll, which found approval ratings of President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali at 72% and Prime Minister Mark Phillips at 71%.
In contrast, the approval rating for Mr. Norton, the Opposition Leader (who is also the PNCR Leader) is 28%. Clearly, the population approves of the performance of the Government and disapproves of the performance of the Opposition.
It is noted that none of the other political parties and representatives of the other race groups have accused the PPPC Government of racial discrimination, and the other groups account for 31% of the country’s population, a percentage higher than the Afro-Guyanese population of 29%.
Clearly, the charge of racial discrimination in Guyana under the PPPC Administration is not borne out. Attorney General James, Congressman Jeffries and others, you must not allow yourselves to be misled by the organizers of the Oct 30 rally.

Sincerely,
Guyana Democracy
Project
NYC