Tony Vieira wants Bishop Edghill to resign

Mar 02, 2011 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I refer to the drivel written (Kaieteur News, 26th February, 2011) by Azeem Khan and frankly he completely misses the point I am making. I will not answer him directly, but I will make the following statement for his benefit since he seems to be completely unaware that almost everyone in this country despises the ERC and Juan Edghill and what it stands for.
For a long time now we have been aware that the Ethnic Relations Commission [ERC] had an agenda which was very unhealthy. It has endeavoured to create a facade of ethnic harmony in a country whose Government was committing marginalisation and pauperisation of a substantial section of the population — Linden, Georgetown, Buxton, Agricola, New Amsterdam, Victoria, etc.
This deprivation of rights and freedoms is referred to by Desmond Hoyte in his speech at Buxton on October 10, 2002 and I quote him “And so today, comrades, as new oppressors arise, new violators of human rights, people who want to relegate us to the status of hewers of wood and drawers of water, you will resist them. You have always resisted the oppressors.
“You are resisting them today; you have resisted them in the past, and you will resist them in the future, because no tyrant can quench your thirst for freedom. No tyrant can cause you to bend your knees to oppression. It is not just in your character. And so today in the tradition of your ancestors you are resisting strenuously – and rightly so.”
I don’t know what Mr. Hoyte would have said today about what is going on in this country.
The ERC was conceived in the constitutional reform process as a mechanism to heal the racial conflicts in this nation, but its first chairman Juan Edghill was coerced by Bharrat Jagdeo to ensure that the Afro Guyanese were kept in line, subservient to the status quo even as their rights were being eroded.
That is why the opposition refused to support any process which could make the ERC reconstituted under this man, but did nothing to actually stop him from executing his vile agenda even though the statutory time of the ERC had expired.
At this time he must be aware that the body has no constitutional power, but Edghill nevertheless continues to badger the broadcasters, especially since they are the most susceptible because they operate on a government license.
Here is a man who is part of a systematic deprivation of rights, according to Desmond Hoyte’s perceptions of the situation, and at the same time he is betraying his sworn duty to operate the ERC in the interest of all Guyanese.
In a recent Freddie Kissoon column in the Kaieteur news Freddie concluded that “the ERC has become a dangerous agent. It must be stopped.” I agree with him completely. The plot thickens even more, Freddie, since on the 25th February 2011 there appeared a letter from Roger Williams in the Kaieteur News which explores evidence from the past which begins to expose the depths of depravity to which the ERC has descended, when Williams discloses that the Inter Faith Channel [IFO] was the brainchild and was actually chaired by this same Edghill in a sick effort to make all religions, but especially the Christians, subservient to Mr. Jagdeo.
Mr. Williams asks a very relevant question, “What exactly is the truth about the Inter Religious Channel” and he actually answers his own question [excellent letter by the way Mr. Williams]. He says that in a letter to the media by one S. Gopaul in the Stabroek News letters columns on June 3, 2007 captioned “the Swami [Aksharananda] seeks to debunk Christianity, but then urges Christians to practise their religion in a tolerant way”.
So here is the situation finally out in the open. Due to the usual crude, illiterate and clumsy handling of the situation by the PPP, it is now finally disclosed that a diabolical plan was set in motion by the PPP using Edghill as a henchman to marginalise not only the Afro Guyanese through the ERC, but we Christians as well!
And the ERC is standing by to label as racial hatred any objections to this plan by either the Christians or Afro Guyanese in this country.
The obvious pitfalls of the Inter Faith Channel so clearly enunciated by the Stabroek News Editorial of Sunday 20th February 2011 “IRO TV Channel” would make such a channel a creature to its
political masters and whoever, including Mc Garrell and Edghill, are party to this plot to marginalise the Christians in a country in which they are in the vast majority, must now face the music, since this is unconscionable and unacceptable.
I am asking for the resignation of Juan Edghill from the ERC. By the time this letter is published we would have had a new presidential candidate of the main opposition party and I am asking him/her to condemn this marginalisation of the Afro Guyanese and mixed Guyanese in this country. It has gone on for far too long with a weak opposition looking on helplessly, and I am asking for the IFO committee which is allegedly chaired by Edghill which was set up to weaken the Christians in this nation to be dissolved.
This one time I am asking the Guyanese Christians in this nation to stand up with me and demand our rights. Never before have I asked anyone to stand with me on a specific issue, but I do so now.
And I will make this analysis for anyone who wants to listen to reason, there is no way that the opposition in this country will ever have any power to change anything in the Guyana Parliament; the system of government under Proportional Representation guarantees that no PPP Member of Parliament will ever vote against the PPP there, and the executive arm of government is also firmly in control of the judiciary, this is why all of these ridiculous shenanigans are going on but no one has mounted a case in court to question them since it is seen as a waste of time and will take years to be resolved.
Mr. Editor when you deprive people of representation in Parliament and you deprive them of representation under the rule of law, where do you expect them to go to get satisfaction?  It’s dangerous. Let those who are in danger take heed.
I will quote Mr. Hoyte again. “The problem is not Buxton, it is in every village that is depressed and marginalized.  So another Buxton will arise if they could suppress this Buxton. And more and more Buxtons will arise and they will find themselves caught up in a maelstrom from which they themselves will not escape.”
Tony Vieira

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