Brooklyn – a stark revelation of where Guyana is

Aug 19, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

Today I join two events, which I believe are related. The first occurred at an opposition rally in Brooklyn, with 2,000 Guyanese attending. The second was of an almost overnight Presidential announcement of a ‘one-off’ $25,000 cash grant for some 60,000 Guyanese pensioners and others with distressed circumstances. The claim in Brooklyn was of government discrimination against Afro Guyanese; while the presidential announcement was to provide relief to vulnerable Guyanese. Which is which and what is what, behind the sharp contentions, and sweet leadership response? And where do this singular gathering in Brooklyn point, as to what exists in Guyana and what could possibly develop a full head of steam in the future?
Two thousand Guyanese came out in Brooklyn to rage against PPP injustices and PPP discriminations. There were overwhelmingly Black Guyanese. I am not Black, I am Indian. I agree with those claims of injustice and targeted racial discrimination. The PPP record is there; words and deeds, too, and with only one year considered. I have read, heard, seen, and detected them. Close up and from the victimised. In one state agency after another, Black Guyanese are isolated and sent packing. I have names, places, and instances; and I think that for each one that I have, the coalition has scores more. They didn’t steal, engage in wrongdoing. They were longstanding workers with clean histories. This is in the realm of employment only. Their only crime is their colour. Oh! And the colour that they followed faithfully (but wrongly) for 19 gruelling months.
But following the wrong party is never grounds for witch hunts, terminations, keeping out qualified applicants, and torturing those already in the worksite. The wounds of elections have not closed, and they are probed and stretched further by these ongoing incidents of racial discrimination by the PPP. Undoubtedly, there would be some exaggeration and inflation, given politics at work. But there is also the reality, of which I know, where too many Black public servants have been pushed out to pasture. Though there is no reason that stands honest scrutiny, there is rime. The rime is their acidic colour, the pungency of their political affiliation; and, given the closeness of the 2020 elections, clearly it was a case of apaan jaat in near absolute terms on both sides of the racial divide. Now I get down to the dirty.
The fact that 2,000 primarily Black Guyanese could muster energy in Brooklyn to rail against real and suspected PPP racial discriminations presents a disturbing picture. It disturbs because it was an opposition-driven event, and which group is still floundering to find its moorings. If in its weakened state it can stir 2,000 overseas Guyanese (Black Guyanese) to spend a summer afternoon, amidst an escalating pandemic, to voice their anger and call for action against what is wrong, then I read much from that painting.
It is that, though enfeebled, the PNC-APNU-AFC (plus outliers) can inspire this degree of energy and following tells me of what else it could do, what more could be lying in store. If the troubled opposition can bring out 2,000 in Brooklyn, it can bring out 20,000 in the streets of Guyana, and in a whiff, once its leadership finalises. Even more importantly, there is deep and intensifying resentment and animosity over elections (misplaced) and natural resources wealth (accurate) political mismanagement from the crooked visions of PPP leaders.
The vision of Black Guyanese, wherever they are, is that they will forever be dependent on a cash handout, PPP leadership charity, and condemned to the margins with frail hopes that hinge on the kindness of PPP leaders. In the minds of Black Guyanese that is totally unacceptable. And if the shoe were on the other foot, then Indian Guyanese would be of the same sharp, stormy disposition. No number of presidential platitudes and Vice-Presidential reassurances find reception in the hearts of Black Guyanese. They don’t in me, and look at who I am. No occasional and tactical $25,000 cash relief (national or segmented) serves to satisfy long-term dreams and aspirations of a national race that is more than an electoral statistic; demographically, a perpetually losing one.
Even further, none of these now recognisable red herrings that PPP leaders widely use to rearrange the attention of Guyanese, especially simmering Black ones beginning to agitate, are working as well as before. When I contemplate all this, I arrive at a rough and undesirable place.
My sense is that there is great discontent in the hearts of Black Guyanese, which racial discrimination only fuels, though at a low burn currently. Discontent is prey to ratcheting pressures, pressures prone to cultivation, and the cultivated open to rebounding and standing spiritedly. PPP leaders have aided with discriminations and deviousness producing unending deceptions. I believe this: people can accept where they are stoically and resignedly. Or they can say, to hell with this, and put an end to their misery. Of course, misery breeds more misery. I think it brews.

Sincerely,
GHK Lall