There must be a fair playing field in debates

Dear Editor,
There must be a fair playing field in the debates that have an impact on all of Guyana. I say this because there seems to be a trend where there are standards that some people are demanded to meet, while others are given a pass.
Lincoln Lewis’ letter in sections of the media on June 11, 2018, is one issue that backs up this point. Lewis argues that Robeson Benn must produce evidence to back up his claim that the hiring done at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) is not done based on merit. Does he have evidence to disprove this? Is he deliberately ignoring that GECOM itself has not produced evidence to disprove this?
This is not an issue of race. This is about merit. Why do some people have to be tested twice, if they pass the first test, when others do not? These are facts that are not hard to verify. Is this why some people are trying to make it a race issue? Because they want to change the conversation to something that is historically contentious?
Editor, Lewis also makes it a point to say that the majority of the staff employed are GECOM are Afro-Guyanese, some 46 per cent of those employed. But he ignores the controversial nature of this statistic itself. The Department of Public Information, last week, quoted GECOM Commissioner, Vincent Alexander, saying that GECOM does not record the ethnicities of the staff it employs. So where did the 46 per cent come from? Was Alexander being dishonest? The fact is that the GECOM Chairman, Justice (retired) James Patterson, talked about this 46 per cent twice already, in the Kaieteur News and in the Stabroek News over the weekend. Is the repetition of the 46 per cent line proof that Alexander was not being honest? But this is an aside.
Back to the issue of Lewis’ call for evidence, I submit that he is setting standards for other people; standards he has failed to meet. Where is the evidence to support his claim that Afro-Guyanese were worse off under the last Government? Where is his evidence to show comparative numbers for land/and home ownership, business ownership or comparative number for any other areas where Afro-Guyanese, like all other Guyanese, benefited and improved their standard of living?
We also cannot forget that Lewis joined the bandwagon of those making wild charges about Afro-Guyanese having died, as a result of extra-judicial killings under the last Government. But he did not say anything when the very list of 400 Afro-Guyanese was reviewed and when the very list exposed the lies being told. That list had the names of Police Officers, Army officers, civilians, businesspeople and even criminals – people of all race. Where is the list of 400 innocent Afro-Guyanese men who were killed? Why has Lewis failed to substantiate something he subscribes too?
In calling for constructive and structured means of addressing issues, Lewis exposes the fact that he has failed in this very regard.

Sincerely,
David Williams