By Ryhaan Shah
Social cohesion, respect for diversity, multiculturalism, pluralism, ethnic unity, all awe is one – we are all familiar with the terms and phrases used to boast about how well the six ethnicities and races of Guyana work together for our mutual good. We are also tired of the untruth the rhetoric represents. The fact is: racism is winning. That winning, unfortunately, is accompanied by the worst of human discord, and we are also familiar with those facts and truths: the ethnic violence, the intolerance and disrespect, and the fallout of the political/race war that includes impoverishment, corruption and under-development.
Since the Granger Government took office, the racism has become overt and brazen. The rule of law is usurped with a boldness that derives from having powerful international backers and the unswerving loyalty of the armed forces. Government not only rewards civil servants like Lloyda Nicholas-Garrett at the Office of the Presidency for using “coolie” pejoratives but its employment policies include the ethnic cleansing of Indian Guyanese from the public service; and the closure of sugar estates has left well over 6000 Indian Guyanese sugar workers jobless.
In this environment, it comes as no surprise that it took Mae’s Schools over a week to find the grace and humility needed to issue an apology for the disrespect and intolerance shown towards a child from the First Nations community who showed up for the school’s Culture Day proudly attired in his native costume. That a school where the young are being educated has even become embroiled in such a matter involving the wellbeing of a child presents the truest picture yet of Guyana’s situation vis a vis racism and intolerance.
Perhaps, this imbroglio points up the truth that this is actually the country’s natural state and that all the attempts at “love and unity” fail not only because they are superficial and ignore the serious underlying issues that create the divide but because they go against the very grain of the inbred divisions on which this country was founded.
Colonialism bred racism of every kind. Natural differences of race, ethnicity, religion, etc, were exploited by the British in their divide-and-rule policy which served to protect them from any united rebellion from the “natives”. Pitting one against the other was the defensive strategy that kept them safe and secure.
Unfortunately, we are not yet mature enough or secure enough as Guyanese citizens to move past those divisions. In fact, we entrench them. As my column last week pointed out, we have developed no shared identity based on the best of human values, ethics, and behaviours that enables us to unite as a nation, and in a togetherness that respects the wealth of our cultural and ethnic diversity.
Instead, three decades of the PNC dictatorship, which was hinged on anti-Indian sentiments and strategies and was supported by a US-UK alliance, only deepened the divide. Burnham set out to right the perceived wrongs done to his people, African Guyanese, by tilting policies in their favour and by giving them all the advantages the country could offer. The result was chaos, poverty, and economic ruin for everyone.
His devotee, Granger, has learned nothing from his failures and appears to have doubled down on proving the rightness of Burnham’s “vision”. And he, also, appears, for whatever reason, to have the tacit support once again of a US-UK alliance.
There is already universal resignation to the idea that the 2020 General Election will be rigged to favour the PNC. The unilateral appointment of the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) chair by Granger was a clear indication of the plot that was afoot and the reports that GECOM is not hiring Indian Guyanese staff come as no surprise. The fix is in and it is doubtful that any civil society calls for election watch groups to be present to ensure transparency and fairness in 2020 will even matter given the powerful international players that are involved.
The PPP/C in its 23-year tenure managed to do very little to move the needle away from racism. Truthfully, it never mattered how much they did or didn’t do for African Guyanese. They could produce all the facts and figures to show how much better PNC supporters fared under their administration and it wouldn’t matter because the racism at work is a naked appeal to the worst of tribal emotions.
The solid African Guyanese vote for the PNC in 1992 after nearly three decades of Burnhamism is evidence of the loyalty that matters most: race. The colonial lessons of divide and rule were well learned but while racism continues to win, Guyana loses.
