Dear Editor,
In mid-June of this year, Mr Hamilton Green was exposed by Ryhaan Shah, when she posited questions to him. Green, at the time, was trying to intimate that we need to grasp ‘racist’ PPP/C lessons from a massacre of African-Americans. His attempt to do so resided in reference to the “Sun Chapman” explosion, which he is laying at the feet of the PPP/C.
Well, he was told, and as we all know the “Sun Chapman” incident was fully and independently investigated by the then colonial Police, and they concluded that there was nothing evidential as to the PPP’s involvement in the incident.
Now, in that same ‘race-game,’ Hamilton Green is trying ‘his thing’ again. In his July 28 Stabroek News’ letter, a few days ago, he put forward that “… if State sees need for ethnic balance in security forces, then this must permeate all aspects of society.”
He says that “… if the State apparatus believes in the utility and necessity for ethnic balance, then such a philosophy must permeate and saturate all aspects of our society.” Then he proceeds to suggest racial imbalance, favouring Indians, in the following: use and allocation of State lands for forestry and mining; licences for the importation and sale of pharmaceuticals, allied goods and equipment; the importation and sale of groceries and foodstuff; licensing for firearms, etc; importation of motor vehicles and heavy equipment; and awarding of multi-million contracts for large infrastructural works. Green claims that in “the cases above and in many other areas, Afro-Guyanese constitute less than three per cent of those controlling the above significant sectors and services”.
My question: “How come no one has heard of legitimate complaints from the actual Afro-Guyanese”? Also, there is a public way that these areas are accessed, and each has its stipulations. There are standard requirements for applications to be made for every category Green listed. I add that during the tenure of A Partnership For National Unity/Alliance For Change, nothing changed in those areas. Is it fair then for me to say that even APNU/AFC discriminated against Afro-Guyanese?
Why a person or groups of persons gravitate towards a place or profession has nothing specifically to do with any kind of racial discrimination. If Green were to check the statistics, right in the US, he will discover that even the prison system has an imbalance in racial numbers, and this has nothing to do with racial discrimination. He can look at school ‘drop-outs’ too, and the same will obtain; there is no parity when race and numbers are aligned. People make choices, good or bad, based on a number of elements, and we have to accept this and live with it.
Hamilton Green should offer a response to Ryhaan Shah. She was asking on the behalf of many, explanations for the following: the race riots of the 1960s; the political assassination of Father Darke and Dr Walter Rodney; the riot of 1992 to try to overturn a legitimate election after nearly 28 years of PNC dictatorship; Hoyte’s “slow fyah, mo fyah” campaign; the Buxton-centred terrorism to try and overturn a legitimate PPP Government; and the PNC’s anti-democratic antics of election riggery, and their targeted attacks on Indian-Guyanese just last year.”
Many of us await his responses to those.
Yours truly,
Attiya Baksh
