Guyana is a great country. It is blessed with people from all walks of life. It is a melting pot of different cultures, races and ethnicities. It is also a country which offers countless opportunities and chances for its citizens to develop and achieve their maximum potential in various regards.
The country is a place where people can enjoy varying degrees of tranquillity and peace depending on where they visit or reside. It is also important to note that Guyana is one of the few countries in this hemisphere that is characterised by high levels of religious and social tolerance despite the diversity of the ethnic enclaves occupying its land mass.
The country’s history as far as slavery and indentureship are concerned has shaped its socio-political as well as economic ideology and outlook. This history is responsible, in part, for the popular culture that results in the creation of new forms of subcultures and norms that challenge existing stereotypes about how free men and women must live, achieve wealth and status, and procreate.
Now more than ever, Guyana is on the verge of realising its true development potential after years of good and prudent economic as well as fiscal management and austerity when necessary under the tenure of the now opposition People’s Progressive Party/Civic.
The PPP also somehow managed to unite Guyanese with competing and different interests in order to tap into their collective abilities while temporarily removing the deep-rooted and ingrained things that threaten to undermine progress, reconciliation and national unity.
One of those things is racism and racial disharmony. Since the early 1950s this phenomenon has threatened to destabilise the prevailing levels of cohesiveness and unity in our society. At times, it succeeded and citizens were forced as well as educated to believe that the colour of their skin was either a passport or a signal of their status or a deportation notice which confirmed that they were not wanted or legit in certain parts of the country.
Despite the rhetoric and semantics of former Prime Minister and President Forbes Burnham, under his watch the People’s National Congress perused an agenda of systemic racism and discrimination against those who opposed its policies and rule including middle class blacks and Guyanese of mixed heritage.
The party continued to pursue this agenda despite the protestations of the PPP and has offered no apologies for the mass killings, political disorder and continued racism which occurred under its watch. Instead all of its leaders have offered tales of deniability and rationalisation of particular events to justify both the mood and response of the PNC Government at various times in this country’s history.
It is also important to note that the PNC did nothing to widened its appeal to other groups until consecutive Population Censuses begun recording the decline and increase in its core support bases over a number of years.
The PPP also have done its share of wrongs as far as encouraging a phenomenon which nurtures as well as encourages racial divisiveness and marginalisation. Though not deliberately, the party erred by not doing much more to educate its support base and Guyanese in general about the need for racial harmony which is the only prerequisite for national unity.
By not making this feature more than a popular talking point and thematic expression, the PPP missed countless opportunities to achieve ethnic harmony and solidarity during its 23-year rule.
But the PPP is not as half as bad or arrogant as the PNC of the 1970s and 1980s.
In fact, it did way more to achieve a legislative and legal foundation that protects all Guyanese and promotes racial equality during its tenure even if some feel differently.
Unfortunately, Guyana is facing a new test that threatens to reintroduce and reopen its scars of race hate, race-oriented politics and racial animosity.
Since the elections of 2015, the levels of racial insecurity have risen and there is much ethnic discord at the community levels. The new government and its harsh, untempered and brutish rhetoric are partially responsible for that discord. Also its policies and politics have confirmed that there is a genuine disinterest in creating both a modern platform and environment for higher levels of respect, reforms and tolerance aimed at improving race relations.
It would appear that Guyanese of East Indian and Amerindian heritage have found themselves in a bind and at a larger disadvantage when pursuing opportunities, social justice and the protection of their private as well as human rights.
In order to change course, a properly functioning Ethnic Relations Commission must be made functional along with a parliamentary committee on improving race relations.
In addition, the government needs to disabuse its mind of the fallacy that it is achieving national unity and social cohesion. It is not! Any fool could attest to the fact that race relations are not improving and it’s because of a lack of vision and leadership on the part of those who wield political power.
