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May 05, 2021 Letters
DEAR EDITOR,
Please allow me to respond to Mr. Vincent Alexander’s remarks in riposte (KN May 3) to my admonishment of Dr. David Hinds and PNC/R MP Amanza Walton-Desir (May 1). His (Vincent) response to my excoriation of AWD is totally irrelevant to her racist rant. Alexander has gone into a typical PNC/R offensive mode which is to blame others for its poor governance and blunders and engaging in deflections. He introduces extraneous, unrelated issues to excuse AWD and others’ behaviour.
Alexander mis-represented comments uttered by Dr. Kirk Meighoo in which Meighoo and I appeared on a podcast about the history of the Indian presence and culture in Guyana. Instead of censuring AWD and chastising Dr. Hinds for nodding his head in approval for AWD’s race bait statement that Indians are mentally lazy, he justifies their behaviour. He’s rationalising the behaviour of AWD when everyone knows that she was spouting extreme racism!
Hinds can’t be excused for not denouncing AWD’s racist fulminations about Indians. Alexander is dead wrong on that point as well as in seeking to defend and excuse Hinds and AWD.
In the podcast on the history of Indian presence, where Dr. Meighoo and I were guests, Dr. Meighoo never under-valued the contribution of Africans in Guyana, and therefore there was no need for me to ‘correct’ him. The subject was about the contributions of Indians to Guyana, and he commented exclusively about Indians, not about Africans. Meighoo, like me, assailed the Europeans for slavery and indentureship. Who else but Indians have been “foundational people” for their culture in Guyana? The PNC did not build Indian culture. On the contrary, it marginalised Indian culture and the presence of every ethnic group. According to Nanda Sahadeo, PNC seized Indian funds to build a national cultural centre in a PNC stronghold instead of Indian cultural centres all over the country. It is well documented that Chinese, Portuguese, Mixed and Amerindians, and even the PNC/R’s own African supporters ran away from Guyana because of poor governance.
On the Infinity Foundation podcast, there was no comparison of the contributions of Indians with Africans or with the other four ethnic groups. At any rate, I have consistently acknowledged the invaluable contributions of all ethnic groups in the development of Guyana. It is also recorded history that Africans pre-date Indians in Guyana and the Caribbean.
Let me assure Alexander that I do not have a fetish castigating PNC/R. But who should be blamed for poor, and racist governance between 1965 and 1992 and from June 2015 to February 2020. Should we blame UF, PPP, AFC, WPA, URP, Anglo Saxons, the etc.?
When AWD stated that Indians have a lazy brain and depend on the PPP to think for them, it could not be that she was referring to the Indian presence from 1838 when they first arrived in Guyana. The PPP was founded in 1950. The PPP represented the working class of all ethnicities thru 1955. The PPP began to represent Indians from 1957 in ‘ethnicised’ voting in which Indians voted Jagan PPP, Africans Burnham PPP (renamed PNC), and Portuguese, Amerindians, Chinese, and some Coloureds voting the UF. This was the reality, regardless of who went with whom after the slit in the PPP.
Why is Alexander still blaming the White man for all the problems of Guyana post 1966? Did the White man instruct PNC to mis-rule Guyana from 1965?
Alexander is right that an ‘us against them’ was introduced by Anglo Saxons since Indians first came to Guyana. Ethnic issues are as old as civilisation. But Guyana’s ethnic politics does have its genesis in the late fifties and early sixties, reinforced by the mis-rule of Burnham and Hoyte. Forbes Burnham and the PNC became tools of the colonial imperialists. The literature is replete with commentaries that Alexander’s hero, Burnham, allowed himself to be manipulated by the Anglo Saxons to divide the unity movement of 1950. And has Alexander forgotten the racist comment of Hoyte about the “Putagee Mafia”. In contrast, Cheddi Jagan worked on building a multi-ethnic political grouping from 1950 onwards that was rendered asunder by Burnham’s political opportunism combined with Anglo Saxon colonial ‘divide and rule’ that was referred to by Alexander.
AWD’s behaviour is inexcusable and unjustified. She explicitly compared Indians (who she described as automatic PPP supporters) with Africans who she equates as PNC supporters and who she stated is enlightened as compared with the docile Indians. She also said Africans are more democratic oriented and think for themselves. Does the African’s greater enlightenment than the Indians’ caused the former to support an ethnic dictatorship between 1966 and 1992, and for silence of most of them during the March thru July 2020 election rigging, and for the racial violence unleashed on Indians in West Berbice in September 2020.
I saw remarks in which AWD sought to clarify what she meant by Indians lazy brain. It only worsened her belief about Indians, and for asserting that Africans are more “inquiring” than Indians. She failed to show any remorse for her vulgar belief feelings about Indians. She rationalises her position with faulty logic and condescending rhetoric. She could have come out and say she misunderstands the Indian community and she is sorry and the matter ends.
As an educated MP of the PNC/R, AWD should have known better. In a sympathetic environment with Hinds, when her guard was down, she revealed her mindset. I don’t think she represents the mindset of Alexander and Hinds. I do not think Alexander endorses her views of Indians. I don’t think Hinds agrees with AWD that Indians are lame brained. It is not the Hindis I know. I think his nodding on the video is an acknowledgement that he was listening rather than agreeing with her. I hope so, anyway! But he is yet to issue a clarification and disassociation of her remarks.
If Mr. Alexander is interested in Indian-African unity, he should advise AWD to issue an unqualified apology. No one should insult people on account of race. He should also advise the PNC/R to repudiate her. No race is superior to another. All six ethnic groups, and the new comers, should work together to help build our nation.
Yours truly,
Vishnu Bisram
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