Bring the evidence
–President urges PPP to either prove ethnic discrimination claims, or take matter to the courts
By Ravin Singh
OPPOSITION Leader Bharrat Jagdeo, and by extension the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), is being urged to bring supporting evidence of ethnic discrimination to the coalition government or take the matter to the courts. Throwing down the gauntlet was President David Granger, who, during the broadcast of his weekly televised programme, “The Public Interest”, lamented the dangers of such claims in a multi-ethnic society such as Guyana’s.
“If the Leader of the Opposition has evidence that there has been wrongdoing in accordance with the laws of Guyana and the Constitution, he can bring that to us or he can move to the courts,” the President said.
However, the PPP is yet to provide a list of persons they believe have been discriminated against by the APNU+AFC government on the basis of their ethnicity. On Wednesday, the party’s General-Secretary, Clement Rohee was asked a second time whether he had such a list at hand, but, as happened last week, he did not.
On the other hand, political activist Freddie Kissoon has been providing a list of persons in his Kaieteur News column who he believes the PPP witch-hunted during its term in executive office.
THE QUEENS SAGA
Just over a week ago, Jagdeo, while speaking at a social event in Queens, New York, said Guyana’s political, economic and social conditions were worse than in the 1970s and 1980s under the then People’s National Congress (PNC) government.
The Opposition Leader went on to suggest that there is discrimination on the basis of ethnicity being perpetrated by the coalition Government, on people of Indian descent.
“There is an assault on our democracy. There is an assault on people of Indian origin. There is an assault on supporters of the PPP. What we thought would never return to Guyana, in just one short year has returned with full force, and even worse in some regards than the Burnham era,” he reportedly told the predominantly Indo-Guyanese gathering.
But according to President Granger, these comments are being made by an individual who is currently before the courts for using language which has been described as divisive and racist. Jagdeo also appeared before the courts twice for matters of a similar nature.
As the president went on to explain, there are extremists who will continue to speak in divisive terms, which underscores the need for the government to put an end to it.
URGES RESTRAINT
In the circumstances, he sought to urge Jagdeo to restrain his comments, since it has the potential to contribute to religious and ethnic extremism.
“Right now, we are a multi-religious country, and we don’t want religious extremism here. We can see in other parts of the world the damage that religious extremism can do.
“Similarly, we don’t want ethnic extremism, because it will pull our country apart. We want a more cohesive society,” the president said, adding that he does not believe the comments attributed to Jagdeo are helpful in building a more cohesive society.
He also sought to register his support of comments made by political commentator, Ralph Ramkarran, who said that Jagdeo’s comments are divisive.
A former long-standing member of the PPP, Ramkarran also suggested that the opposition leader’s comments in New York revealed the new agenda of the PPP, which is: To represent their ethnic interests exclusively.
NEW AGENDA
“This is a wholly new dimension to the PPP’s agenda; namely, its formal and official transformation by Mr Jagdeo into an ethnic party representing exclusively ethnic interests,” Ramkarran said.
The president also said that to suggest that Indo-Guyanese are being persecuted does not necessarily call on the government to reach out to indo-communities specifically, since it has been reaching out to all communities across Guyana.
“We have reached out to all sections of the population,” President Granger said, “and we want to reduce inequality and give all our schoolchildren the opportunity to get the best education they can get, so they can understand how other races live and behave.”
He posited that it is very important that the government reduces inequality, and that measures are being taken by the Ministry of Social Cohesion to reduce levels of inequality.
“We in the coalition believe that a more equal society would be a more cohesive society,” he said, adding:
“Inequality is the foundation for divisiveness and ethnic conflicts. And I think we’ve made a tremendous amount of progress in creating better understanding and creating the foundation for a more cohesive society.”
