Latest update April 18th, 2024 12:59 AM
Feb 22, 2019 Letters
We share below a street speech by Dr. Walter Rodney, arguing against racial antagonism prior to his death in 1980, which remains pertinent even today. This is followed by some remarks we consider noteworthy to the national interest.
“You see, we have had too much of this foolishness of race. I’m not going to attempt to allocate the blame one way or another. I think more than one political party has been responsible for the crisis of race relations in this country. I think our leadership has failed us on that score. I think external intervention was important in bringing the races against each other from the fifties and particularly in the early sixties. But I’m concerned with the present. If we made that mistake once, we cannot afford to be misled on that score today. No ordinary Afro-Guyanese, no ordinary Indo-Guyanese can today afford to be misled by the myth of race. Time and time again it has been our undoing.
“Does it have anything to do with race that the cost of living far outstrips the increase in wages? Does it have anything to do with race that there are no goods in the shops? Does it have anything to do with race when the original lack of democracy as exemplified in the national elections is reproduced at the level of local government elections? Does it have anything to do with race when the bauxite workers cannot elect their own union leadership? Does it have anything to do with race when, day after day, whether one is Indian or African, without the appropriate party credentials, one either gets no employment, loses one’s employment, or is subject to lack of promotion?
“It is clear that we must get beyond that red herring and recognise that it is intended to divide, that it is not intended in the interest of the common African and Indian people in this country. Those who manipulated in the 1960s, on both sides, were not the sufferers. They were not the losers. The losers were those who participated, who shared blows and who got blows. And they are the losers today.
“It is time that we understand that those in power are still attempting to maintain us in that mentality – maintain us captive in that mentality where we are afraid to act or we act injudiciously because we believe that our racial interests are at stake. Surely we have to transcend the racial problems? Surely we have to find ways and means of ensuring that there is racial justice in this society? But it certainly will not be done by a handful of so-called Black men monopolising the power, squeezing the life out of all sections of the working class, and turning around and expecting that they will manipulate an issue such as the Arnold Rampersaud affair and get the support of ordinary black people because we will say, ‘After all; is only an Indian. We could hang him. No sweat.’
“Because, as I said before, you start with one thing, you end with another. The system doesn’t stop at racial discrimination. Because it is a system of class oppression, it only camouflages its class nature under a racial cover. And in the end, it will move against anyone, irrespective of colour. In the end, they will move even against their own. Because, don’t believe if you are a member of that party today, that you will be protected tomorrow from the injustices. Because when a monster grows, it grows out of control. It eats up even those who created the monster. And it’s time that our people understood that.”
While the Democratic National Congress concedes that international forces did play a role in the evolution of Guyana’s politics, we submit that they themselves would admit that the current scenario is the worst case which they never contemplated in their efforts to ensure that Guyana was not overrun by socialist dogma.
Currently, they are grappling with choosing the best of the worst of the PPP and coalition, and would prefer and support a full government offered by the Democratic National Congress because, along with our solid ideas for economic development, we are committed to and will adopt and maintain sound governance systems to eliminate and minimize corruption and maximize welfare possibilities for Guyanese and the nation as a whole.
Like the PPP, by denying Guyanese workers their fair salaries, the Coalition is actually deliberately underdeveloping workers, and condemning their children to a life of insufficiency/poverty.
The PPP and coalition are actually responsible for much of the poverty and suffering experienced by Guyanese throughout the length and breadth of Guyana. We do not however support Dr. Rodney’s ideas of socialism as the basis upon which to build Guyana. Further, our interpretation of Dr. Rodney’s use of the word ‘revolution’ is that of offering new and better ideas of administering our nation’s affairs than that proposed by either the coalition or the PPP, the final set of which we take to the electorate for approval and adoption.
Regards,
Craig Sylvester
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