The ERC too should be sent to Monkey Mountain, Monkey Fall and Monkey Creek

Aug 20, 2009 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

I first knew that there was a far away place in Guyana by the name of Monkey Mountain when I was in primary school. I read in the newspaper where Opposition Leader, Forbes Burnham accused Premier Cheddi Jagan of making an unqualified PPP supporter, one Mr. Barney Johnson as the headmaster of the Monkey Mountain Primary School. I doubt very much Kwame Mc Coy and Juan Edghill know that Guyana has two settlements by the names of Monkey Creek and Monkey Mountain. There is also Monkey Fall.
Monkey Mountain is also the name of a mountain in Guyana. There is also Monkey Jump All are located near the border with Brazil.
Let me repeat what I wrote and I stand by what I penned – President Forbes Burnham would not have tolerated someone like Mc Coy as his press liaison but would have consigned him to a platoon in the National Service and sent him to Monkey Mountain. One has to be asinine to interpret that as racist. Which part of that statement is racist?
So if you say someone is so useless that he should be sent to Crab Island, you are being racist. I never referred to anyone in my column as a monkey or donkey and I doubt I would do that. But in any heated argument, I may be inclined to call a supporter of fascism a monkey or a donkey.
What about Mosquito Hall in Mahaica? So if I say I will never live in Mosquito Hall, I mean that the people there are like mosquitoes therefore I am being racist?
Mr. Mc Coy is hopeless as a public relations officer and he should be sent to Monkey Mountain so he can learn a few things about life from the people there.
Monkey Mountain rises above sea level and the view, which is very nice, should help him to acquire some relevant skills.
When it comes to the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC), I believe the Guyanese people should dispatch them to Monkey Mountain, Monkey Fall and Monkey Creek.
Let them cool out in those far away places from Georgetown so the people of Guyana can be relieved of them. The ERC has turned out to be one of the biggest charades, laughable masquerades and bitter lemonades in the entire history of Guyana.
The people of Guyana have allowed the Guyana Government to do what it wants with the laws and Constitution of this country. We are beginning to speak out and I hope our courage eventually leads to the Velvet Revolution .Under the Constitution, a two-thirds majority is needed to resuscitate the ERC after its life came to an end.
The governing PPP continued the life of the ERC through a simple majority in Parliament.
And the constituent members of the ERC, the opposition parties, the churches, the private sector and other stakeholders remain silent. This is a hellish country where an out-of-control government can do whatever it wants.
Guyanese people should know that the ERC is Mr. Juan Edghill. Last year, the ERC wrote labour unions asking to meet them over their concerns. I represented the UG’s union. Only two ERC Commissioners were there – the ever present Edghill and new PPP convert, Carvil Duncan. I walked out of the meeting after Edghill misled the attendees on the non-racial composition of scholarships.
He did not tell us that the Government withheld data from the researcher so the findings are incomplete. I wrote a column on this fiasco with the ERC.
Two weeks ago, the ERC wrote the unions again. There were three Commissioners, the two mentioned above and Mr. Peter Willems.
He didn’t speak. Once more I queried how the ERC can meet with important stakeholders and only a small minority of Commissioners is present. After his explanation for the absent Commissioners, it was clear to all present that the ERC is not presently constituted. I am asking the PNC, AFC, WPA, GHRA and TUC to let us move to the courts to stop this farce.
As with the session last year, again I walked out of the meeting after Edghill refused to apologize for misleading the labour leaders present about the level of racial discrimination in the awards of scholarships because the Government did not release its list of awardees over the years since the PPP took power.
Yet the ERC submitted a list of its accomplishments to those present which stated there was no discrimination in the distribution of scholarships. Like the Bisram polls, the ERC is both a farce and a fiction.

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The ERC too should be sent to Monkey Mountain, Monkey Fall and Monkey Creek

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