No place for race-baiting

Dear Editor

There can be no place in Guyana for race-baiting. Anyone who seeks to exploit race as a means of achieving political ends is doing a great disservice to the people of Guyana.

I have always maintained the view that Guyana is evolving to higher levels of multiculturalism and ethnic tolerance. We only have to look at the recent Mashramani and Phagwah festivals to get a sense of how much we have embraced each other as a people, regardless of our ethnicity or politics. These manifestations of cultural assimilation must be encouraged. As Dr. Martin Luther King said, an individual must be judged not by the colour of his skin but by the strength of his character. This is indeed a powerful statement which should be embraced by all Guyanese.

Guyana is an ethnically diverse society. Our strength lies in our diversity. Any individual or group that seeks to divide us on the grounds of our diversity must be called out. It diminishes us as a people and as a society.

Regards, Hydar Ally

Dear Editor,

The necessary and timely reminder is that we Guyanese must ‘never forget our struggles to preserve democracy.’

It is a little over three years now, and the memory is quite fresh. However, in the future, this reminder must be invoked, as distant generations must be apprised of what took place in the aftermath of the March 2020 Guyana Elections.

So, I am with President Ali as he conjured up the struggles to have the electorate’s voice heard and respected after the said March 2, 2020 unfolding, when A Partnership For National Unity/ Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) sought to steal legitimate elections victory from the now ruling People’s Progressive Party/Civic incumbent. What a five-month episode that was!

Editor, it will remain vivid in my mind, and I guess in the minds of those who witnessed it. Initially, things went quite well pre-voting and actual voting, and even the initial stages of the counting were in order. However, ‘all hell broke loose’ when the Region Four tally was being compiled. That started the unfolding of what was described as “attempts by the then APNU+AFC Administration to rip the democratic fabric of the nation”, with “delay tactics” which were openly criticised by a wide section of society…(as President Irfaan Ali has put it).

And what a society that was! That observing society included independent and international elites such as former British High Commissioner to Guyana, Greg Quinn; former Ambassador of the European Union Delegation to Guyana, Fernando Ponz-Canto; US Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah-Ann Lynch, and former Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana, Lilian Chatterjee.

Added to this, there were the Members of the Caricom Election Observation Mission, the Organization of American States (OAS), the Commonwealth, the Carter Center, and the European Union, as well as ambassadors accredited to Caricom residents in Guyana and other members of the diplomatic community in Guyana.

This alone should have negated any untoward happenings, yet Guyana was thrown, by the APNU/AFC, into unprecedented waters in a most barefaced manner.

I remember the optimism expressed by the Chief of Mission, Ms Cynthia Combie Martyr, who boasted that “… the people of Guyana should be proud of themselves,” even as the Mission

Guyana can be had via the following link: https://nsarchive. gwu.edu/

What is clear is that Ogunseye’s comments are a betrayal of what the Working People’s Alliance fought and stood for.

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has led the charge in rallying condemnation for Ogunseye’s comments. 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); and the trade union movement, via the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Guyana (FITUG), have all come out in condemnation.

Even the Chairman of the Joint Services of Guyana and Chief of Staff of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), Brigadier Godfrey 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 which salutes the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) and the citizens of the country “for the peaceful conduct of the Poll.” Alas! Alas! Alas!

Optimism vanished, and instead of a seamless declaration of results and the swearing-in of the new President, “Guyanese, after casting their votes, had to endure a five-month wait for the results of the General and Regional Elections, as they witnessed alleged unlawful acts and a slew of legal challenges.” All of this was engineered by APNU/AFC, with their chief stars in former Chief Elections Officer Keith Lowenfield and former District Four Returning Officer Clairmont Mingo.

I mean, their dalliance back then was nothing but brazen illegality, and “It was only after the legal challenges and international intervention that a national recount of all votes cast was convened, and the figures, as expected, and in corroboration with all the statements of poll, showed that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) received 233,336 votes, while the APNU+AFC Coalition got 217,920 votes.”

In the end, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) sealed the issue, and the PPP/C are in the rightful seat of governance (still to the denial and disgust of

TURN TO PAGE 5 → the [Joint] Services are mandated to mandate.” Further, it was noted that the Joint Services – which comprises of the Guyana Police Force, the Guyana Prison Service and the Guyana Fire Service along with the GDF – is guided by the Constitution which mandates it to stand firm in the protection of the law and in the execution of its duties, in keeping with its constitutional responsibilities, and not by any partisan values and interests.

Unsurprisingly, leader of the PNCR, Aubrey Norton, who stood on the same stage as Ogunseye on March 9, 2023 at the Buxton public meeting, and several of the usual critics of the PPP/C government, including the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) Head, Mike McCormack, have remained silent on the matter.

Looking ahead, Guyana is on a transformational development trajectory and our people have no interest in returning to the oppressive and repressive past. Collectively we must signal our rejection of not only Ogunseye’s sentiments, but the racist rhetoric that continues to be peddled by Norton’s PNCR-led APNU+AFC Coalition.

Our people will not risk our collective property, the future our of nation, or the future of our children. This is the message that the detractors of progress and prosperity must come to terms with.