Objectivity required on commenting on parties

Dear Editor,
Mark DaCosta in a recent letter described the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) “as ethnic oriented” but not the Alliance For Change (AFC) and the People’s National Congress (PNC). All the parties are ethnic. So his analysis cannot be a fair, balanced and accurate description of politics and parties in Guyana.  It behoves DaCosta and other commentators to be objective in their analysis of politics and to articulate a vision in which executive power will be shared by all the representative parties and there will be a fair and equitable distribution of resources among the competing ethnic groups.
DaCosta defines the A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and AFC coalition as articulating a non-ethnic agenda and describes the PPP as being driven by ethnicity. I don’t know whether Dacosta is living in Guyana or is a regular reader of the newspapers.  If he were, he would have known that Indians have been marginalised. And Indians and Amerindians have been crying racial victimisation since the change in Administration in 2015. Thousands of them have been fired from their jobs. Many have been replaced by supporters of the PNC. Is that an example that DaCosta feels exemplifies the coalition Government’s non-ethnic position.
Contrary to what DaCosta states, all three parties have ethnicity as their foundation.

The Africans have not shifted their support from 1957. The Indians shifted in 2011 and 2015 voting for AFC but quite likely they will return to the PPP come 2020 because the AFC to which they gave their support has betrayed them.  The AFC has had an opportunity to bring racial healing and to reduce if not altogether end ethnic conflict. It has chosen to abandon its mission in favour of self-interest of its leadership. For whatever reasons, APNU or PNC is not interested in sharing power.
Clearly, the coalition is not governing without bias. There has not been national unity since the change in Administration. Race relations have gotten worse. There is more ethnic disharmony today than at any time in the Burnham dictatorship.
Ethnic conflict is not going away from Guyana. APNU and AFC are not reducing ethnic animosity. We are not contributing to a solution of the ethnic conflict by accusing one party of creating ethnic division and not the others. Denial of the obvious will not help our politics. We cannot pretend conflict does not exist. We can’t wish it away. Racial labelling of the PPP and excusing PNC and AFC will not bring healing. We must confront racism and race politics head on. We must advocate for racial power sharing so that all groups are represented by their leaders in government and they must all feel equal.

Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram