Inciteful statements by WPA members under legal review – Benn

Recent statements by members of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) which have been deemed ‘racist and inciting’ by a number of government officials and civil society bodies are currently under legal review.

Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn, in recent comments, charged that the statements are harmful to the country. “They [statements] appear to me to be frankly seditious and if they are found to be frankly, seditious, the laws will take its course,” the Minister said.

The minister joined President, Dr Irfaan Ali, Prime Minister Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips, Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, SC., and members of civil society bodies and the private sector in condemning the statements. “We should not allow persons to vicariously, in a crowded hall of people shout fire or call one set of people to attack another set of people… or to suggest that persons who have arms in a formal discipline service area to turn those against the state or against their fellow Guyanese,” Benn said.

It was also highlighted that statements of this nature cannot be made in a democratic society, where there is a Parliament and legal courts.

Minister Benn also pointed out that there are parliamentary and legal routes for organisations to explore if they are aggrieved.

The Home Affairs Minister recalled the period of the March 2, 2020 General and Regional Elections where, “some persons who were in uniform did things which were not lawful, democratic in relation to our country. We’ve largely gone past that issue and we don’t want to go back to it.”

Executive Member of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), Tacuma Ogunseye, with whom PNCR Leader, Aubrey Norton, shared a stage on March 9, 2023, during a public meeting in Buxton, East Coast Demerara, stated that in the “present campaign” the WPA has “clear objectives”. The first of these, according to him, was “to get the African team in a state of battle readiness… the Afro-Guyanese police and soldiers… would stand with Afro-Guyanese in resisting mainly Indo-Guyanese supporting the PPP/C.” He said, “…no government could survive if they don’t have the support of the military and those who carry weapons for the state…once we organise our people and once we begin to fight we will ensure that our brothers and sisters in uniform will do the right thing…a white diplomat pulled me in a corner and he said I don’t understand how people complain that they are oppressed and they are holding guns in their hands. They are the majority in the army, in the police, and they say they are oppressed. What he was saying is our problem is our own making. Our problem is our own making. Anytime we turn those guns in the right direction it is over.”

The WPA has since issued a statement in support of Ogunseye. The statement on March 10, 2023, said, “The WPA stands in solidarity with its longstanding member, Tacuma Ogunseye…Mr Ogunseye did not incite the forces as the statement insinuates. He simply call on the men in uniform to do the right thing and not turn their guns on Guyanese citizens protesting and resisting government overreach.”

Meanwhile, the WPA’s Rhonda Layne, at the March 9, 2023 meeting in Buxton said, “All these other people who come here, who suddenly getting land, many of them came from the slums of

India… they lived in pipes, they live in all the deplorable places.”

Regardless the attempts at justification, Ogunseye’s comments have been described as hateful, racially inflammatory and terrorist in nature, by President Ali. The People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) has led the charge in rallying condemnation for the March 9, 2023 comments made Ogunseye.

To date, the business community - the Private Sector Commission (PSC) and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce (GCCI), among others; the religious community - the Central Islamic Organization of Guyana (CIOG), the Pandits Council, the Guyana Central Arya Samaj, and the Guyana Inter Religious Organization (IRO); as well as the trade union movement, via the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), have all come out in condemnation.

The Chairman of the Joint Services of Guyana and Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), Brigadier Godfrey Bess, has also released a statement. Bess charged that: “…irrespective of the its ethnic composition, the Joint Services of Guyana is an apolitical institution and will continue to uphold the novel position of service to the people of Guyana…. social and political activists and commentators (must) refrain from these and other misleading and mischievous remarks which incite racial tensions, deviating from the promotion of the peace and security

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