– President promises laws to curb media incitement

The Guyana Police Force has warned Working People’s Alliance (WPA) executive, Dr David Hinds to desist from making statements that can incite racial violence here in the wake of a recent letter in which he invoked such sentiments.

President Donald Ramotar

In a statement, the Police Force responding to the letter which was published in the Stabroek News on Thursday, March 12, under the caption “There should be no Tit for Tat”, the Police said the gist of the article seems to give the perception that the killing of Courtney Crum-Ewing on March 10, at Diamond, East Bank Demerara was politically motivated by persons aligned to a political party other than the one to which Crum-Ewing belonged.

“The Guyana Police Force wishes to inform the public that on the basis of this article, the Assistant Commissioner (Law Enforcement), Leslie James contacted Mr David Hinds and asked him whether he has evidence of the perpetrators of the murder and he said that he had no such evidence.”

Police said the Assistant Commissioner then informed Hinds that there was, therefore, no logic on which his statement and call for ‘no tit for tat’ was based, and also told him that his statement has the potential to incite violence and warned him to desist from such behaviour. In a release made after the Police report, Hinds confirmed receiving the call in Arizona where he resides and being questioned about his letter. He claimed that the Police did not discuss the import of his statement with him.

Meanwhile, President Donald Ramotar has promised that his new Government would be seeking out every possible measure that would prevent media operatives from spewing racism and hate messages to the public. The Head of State, in an interview on Thursday, blasted sections of the media, whom, he said, were bent on dividing the country through racial incitement. He said should his Administration get back into office after the May 11 Regional and General Elections, it would be strengthening laws and considering every legal framework within the system to address the ongoing excessive abuse.

“I think we will need to look at what measures need to be put in place from a legal and moral point of view to try to prevent persons from distortion and lies and deal with the abuses that have been taking place and the incitement of racism,” Ramotar told a group of journalists at the Office of the President.

The Head of State, who was at the time addressing the issue of racism, said that while the Constitution provided for freedom of expression, persons had no right to abuse that privilege. “While you have a right, you don’t have a right to incite violence, you don’t have a right to preach racism, you don’t have a right to practise racism in this country. People don’t have that right,” the President stressed.

He said if someone tried to persistently create problems among the people of different descent in the country, then that person did not deserve to have that media outlet. “So we will be examining this and seeking out what are the best practices and see legally, what are the best practices other countries use to prevent this type of abuse and see if it could be implemented here and also study our situation to see what could be done here.”

Assistant Commissioner (Law Enforcement) Leslie James

Non-racial policy
Meanwhile, the President told journalists that his Administration has always had a non-racial policy, and has been improving the economic and social conditions of all Guyanese. According to him, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), since its formation under late President, Dr Cheddi Jagan, has always taken a position against the hostility racism evokes. He said the Party was founded as a national political body and has never had any policy which favoured one race at the expense of another. He said while the Party may be guilty of fighting a little more for Guyanese of Amerindian descent, it was his Administration’s overall policy to advance the cause of every citizen.

“The PPP/C was founded as a national party and has remained a national party. It never had any policy that favours one race at the expense of another. We do have a program to try to give some priority to the native Amerindian, because that community has been left back by colonialism and the last PNC [People’s National Congress] regime.”
According to him, the country back in the 1960s has had a swelling crisis over racism, recalling that there were even clashes within the Party.

“We had quite a bit of racial clashes during that time, but even in those circumstances our Party came out in the fight against racism. The Party had a minor split after the 1964 elections because there was a body of views of some people that the Party should continue to fight against the PNC regime that had taken the line of colonialism.”
He said Dr Jagan had, however, concluded by then that the independent struggle against racism had deteriorated into clashes, noting that if party executives had heeded the request of those divided, “we would have been much more difficult to bring back racial and national unity in our society”.

Weeks after leaving office in 1965, Dr Jagan had begun writing extensively on the issue of racism and its nasty effects. “He wrote an article to the PPP/C supporters, condemning racism completely and which he declared that anyone who practises racism it is not only an enemy of the country but the enemy of himself.” And in April of the same year, he again wrote an article against racism, now that is the Party I came from, the Party of which I have been the General Secretary of for some 16 years, that is the tradition and direction we have followed,” Ramotar said.