Afro-Guyanese should now speak of anti-African sentiments
Dear Editor,
The PPP has now officially responded to Mr. Jagdeo’s remarks that there is a resurgence of anti-East Indian sentiments in Guyana. The PPP’s position is an unambiguous support for the judgement of Mr. Jagdeo. One would like to think that there is also a continuing resentment against African Guyanese in Guyana, and African Guyanese should now make their voices heard about this racist cancer seeing that Mr. Jagdeo and the PPP have spoken their minds.
One would like to think that the same way the PPP and Mr. Jagdeo feel that dislike is rising against the East Indians in Guyana, African rights leaders believe that African Guyanese are being deliberately marginalized. One hopes that when these African rights leaders adumbrate their sociological concepts, there is no resulting storm from the PPP. One recalls the outburst from Mr. Jagdeo, while as President, Roger Luncheon and others, when Tacuma Ogunseye said at an ACDA public meeting in BV on the East Coast that African security forces should not allow their brothers and sisters to be used against each other by an Indian regime.
One hopes that when these themes as pronounced by African rights activists, there is no denunciation from Luncheon and his cabal. If Jagdeo can tell an Indian crowd that there is a rising bias against East Indians, one would like to think African Guyanese leaders have a right to inform the security forces that there are moves in society by powerful people to use Africans against each other for the purpose of preserving Indian hegemony.
I would like to use the avenue of this letter by first saying at the time when Ogunseye made his now famous BV remarks, I supported him within the context of continuing ethnic domination in our country. I would now like to repeat that outline of Ogunseye. Is it right for Mr. Jagdeo to tell a large gathering of Indians at a public building (Convention Centre) the following; (A), in the past there was a racial hatred against East Indians, (B) Indians were told not to send their children to school but to keep them at home which was all part of the anti-Indian strategy at the time, (C), this very attitude has returned to Guyana.
If it is right and it appears to the PPP that Mr. Jagdeo was in order when he made those observations, then by what logic can someone disagree with an African rights activist if he/she appeals to the security forces not to be led astray by ethnic groups who do not like Africans, have practiced racism against Africans, have used power to marginalize Africans, and want to use the security forces to quell African anger in order to maintain ethnic supremacy over African Guyanese.
My question is why is Mr. Jagdeo entitled to say that he sees a rising tide of anti-Indian feelings in Guyana, but an African spokesperson cannot proclaim that what he/she sees
in this country is a deliberate policy of reducing the role of African Guyanese in the political economy of Guyana with the intention of extirpating any future power of Africans. We should be thankful for Mr. Jagdeo for openly venting his feeling because it should release the restraint African leaders have lived with in this country since the PNC lost power in 1992. No one has disapproved of this incredible restraint with more energy and anger than Dr. David Hinds
I have seen many African activists denounce their fellow African rights colleagues for being ashamed to speak out on racism against African Guyanese but David Hinds keeps reminding us of this major fault in the politics of African organizations. The question now is seeing that Mr. Jagdeo was not intimidated and the PPP was not ashamed in their opinion that Guyana is witnessing a blowing wind of anti-East Indian resentment, will African rights organizations like ACDA, political parties like the PNC and others openly vent their feelings about the policy of the power-wielders to reduce to nothing the power of African Guyanese ?
I close with a lament I hear all the time from my friends who silently say to me what they are publicly afraid of speaking. Will they now be free from their self-imposed bondage? That lament is about the policy of Mr. Jagdeo as President, which is being continued, to bring in Brazilians and Chinese so as to alter the demographic makeup of Guyana that will see a drastic imbalance with a resulting disadvantage to African Guyanese.
Readers may ask what my position is on this irrationality that is being pursued by the PPP Government. It was a section of my research on ideological racism that I left out because statistics were hard to come by. But my unambiguous position is that I believe the encouragement of Brazilians and Chinese are directed to achieving a demographic shift designed against African Guyanese. Like Mr. Jagdeo, I see a wave of ethnic resentment crashing into the shores of Guyana. Unlike Mr. Jagdeo, the targeted ethnic group is not East Indians but Africans.
Frederick Kissoon