Opposition taking racial and divisive politics too far

Dear Editor,

The PNC/WPA assemblage of the Coalition of sorts are at their lowest ebb, and being in that diminished capacity, they are lashing out in notoriously dangerous forms. That motley group is now making violent and divisive remarks at public fora, trying desperately to foment strife and discord in our society.

It is a well-known fact that this has always been a strategy used by the PNC, but in recent times it has become a more pronounced form of approach.

Now, herein lies the problem: Why this sudden appeal to violence and racial slurs hurled at Indians? Well, it does not take a Rocket Scientist to figure that out. Norton, for his own part, is on the ropes if not on the canvass, and, as such, he will do anything to shore up his image. In that desperation mode, he is calling on the lowest of the low in the WPA to appeal to the thugs that are still around to “turn their guns in the right direction.”

When others chided him for his stupidity, such as Geeta Chandan, this other idiot David Hinds took up the mantle and attacked her with the racial assertion that she is a “slave catcher.” This statement was meant to humiliate her.

It was a strong message that she, being an Indian, needs to stay out of “African” Liberation struggle in Guyana.

In the first place, there is no “African Liberation” struggle in Guyana. If there is, it is a PNC survival struggle, a struggle for relevance in a Guyanese society which has long since ostracised them. Secondly, I ask Hinds not to forget that it was his own kind who caught black men and women and made them slaves, then marched them through the African bush to the slave ports, where they were handed over to the white slave owners. The Indian had no part in that humiliating saga, it was purely the work of idiots like Hinds who did this just for a piece of trinket.

But far more interesting is the motive behind the WPA’s servile remarks. They are doing Norton’s dirty work in elbowing out Indians and moderate blacks out of the party. The PNC leadership was never comfortable with Indians in the inner sanctum of the party, and if you take a good look at the way that race was treated since the Charrandas incident, you will get my drift.

From information gathered, the general sentiment in the party is that the Indians had overstayed their welcome. Their sole purpose was to garner the

Indian votes, while the PNC is left to dominate the scene thereafter. They lost the 2020 Election, so there was no need for the Indians in their midst anymore.

But what I want to tell them is that getting rid of the Indian members would not help their situation either, the PNC is destined to fail, Indian or no Indian.

The fact of the matter is: What are you doing there? We told you so, don’t you people realize that the PNC Party is a bunch of hooligan thugs where Indians and moderate educated blacks are not welcomed? When would you people ever learn? But this is the sad state of affairs of a group of individuals who have become trapped in this racial imbroglio. It is an abysmal situation that no one would like to find oneself.

So, as I close, I must tell my readers that in a modern and enlightened society such as ours, the PNC and its pathetic claptraps are finding themselves alienated from the mainstream concept of One Guyana. In this regard, they will see how hopeless their standing will be in the upcoming Local Government Elections and on the wider general elections stage.

Respectfully, Neil Adams

Dear Editor,

Letme remind Guyanese that in October 2022, a former leader of the Canadian Nationalist Party was handed a one-year sentence on a hate speech charge, after he called for the genocide of Jewish people. He did so in a video posted on the party’s website and social media accounts. This incident, one of many of this type, came back to me as I ruminated on the racial/racist diatribe and ‘call to violence’ that emanated from the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) executive member, Tacuma Ogunseye, who angrily stated that: “The Afro Guyanese dominated Police and soldiers… would stand with Afro Guyanese in resisting the mainly Indo-Guyanese supported PPP/C.” His resort to this kind of rhetoric smacks of ‘immediate violence’ as he ‘preached’ at Buxton that “We come to tell you that we will ensure that our brothers and sisters in uniform do the right thing and this thing will be over quickly.”

Editor, I am incensed at this appalling behaviour, but not surprised. I go back to April 2011, when the said Ogunseye intimated violence. At that juncture, the belligerent activist stated that “The winner-takes-all political system is not in the best interest of Guyana. It creates the possibility of race domination. We (ACDA) believe that the Afri- can community should fight for shared governance in a constitutional struggle though protest or “all other things” that are part of a political struggle to win constitutional reform for shared governance.”

Now he has upped the ante and seems desperate. So, I join the condemning chorus and my remarks here are quite necessary.

First, it is good to note that the Joint Services Chairman, Brigadier Godfrey Bess, is calling on “…social and political activists and commentators to refrain from making remarks which would incite racial tensions and deviate from the promotion of the peace and security, which the armed forces are mandated to maintain.” This is timely, and it comes over as both a rebuke against Ogunseye, and an appeal for ‘rightful actions’ from those he is trying to sway. Brigadier Bess must be commended for his intervention, reminding all that “… irrespective of its ethnic composition, the Joint Services of Guyana is an apolitical institution and will continue to uphold the noble position of service to the people of Guyana.”

I hope this sinks in; Ogunseye needs reform. After all, Guyana, as a democracy, “… is guided by the Constitution, (and this) mandates the body’s protection of the (sanctity of the) law, the execution of its duties, in keeping with its constitutional responsibilities, and not by any partisan values and interests.” Up to this point, kudos to the Joint Services of Guyana.

Secondly, as is his wont, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC, who is also Secretary of the Defence Board, pitched right in, and said: “I feel compelled to condemn in the strongest possible terms, the exhortations by Tacuma Ogunseye to the Armed Forces of Guyana to join a mass uprising against the lawful and democratically elected Government of Guyana, referencing the Forces’ ‘ready access to weapons’, for them to be ‘battle ready’, and preying to the dominant Afro-Guyanese composition of the said Forces.” This is like an OMG.

To Ogunseye, I say that his ‘call for violence’ and his ‘appeal to race’ seem quite protuberant. In fact, Ogunseye comes over as remote and detached. Whom is he speaking to? Who will listen to him? The members of the Joint Forces, in the height of the ignominious rigging attempts, did not misconduct themselves. Will they now besmirch themselves? More so, for a nonentity like Ogunseye?

Anil Nandlall was poignant, referencing his retort in unambiguous legal language. He explicated that this “racist incendiary call” for public disorder and