Dear Editor,
Mr Mike Persaud’s retort to my letter on the PNCR leadership captioned “Mr Burke and others fail to understand the need to develop a genuine multiracial democracy” (07.11.13) reminds me of a story I learnt while attending Hindu Primary School . It was about a drunken pirate at sea, apparently swirling in the confusion of a vertigo dilemma, playing Riddle-Ma-Riddle-Marie. I have no time to engage in riddles.
First, I assure the writer that I have a private life beyond my involvement in CGID. While I am intrigued that ” CGID is on his mind,” my letter made no mention of the Institute. It was clearly written as a former Special Assistant to Hugh Desmond Hoyte.
Second the writer also claimed that I worked for the “PNC , the very outfit that defrauded the state of any semblance of democracy.” It was Forbes Burnham and the PNC who rescued Guyana from PPP racial strife and national destruction in 1964. And it was Desmond Hoyte and the PNC who brought about the so-called restoration of democracy in 1992. What improvement has there been to that same “democracy” brought about by Desmond Hoyte? University of Guyana lecturer Freddie Kissoon, has written inexhaustibly that Guyana today is worse off than anytime under the PNC.
Third, I am ready to dialogue seriously about the emergent pattern in Guyana, the express, insidious intent and effect of which is the reinvention of what in my view is the “Middle Passage.” This “noose” around the collective neck of African Guyanese, which I proudly am, is being tightened by the inaction of the political leadership. I unapologetically embrace Tacuma Ogunseye’s appeal for a political response. And I am perturbed that there has been none, and that there is no apparent strategic plan to resist this.
I live in the United States where I am integrally involved in politics. We do not triangulate and employ “diplomatic speak” about race and ethnicity as a function of tribal politics and an oppressive hegemony, and the impotence of the leadership and the people to “wage war” against racial discrimination. In my opinion, a main constituency of the PNCR is under threat of servitude by the PPP hegemony, and Mr Robert Corbin, as Leader of that Party and of the Opposition, has failed to lead in this hour of crisis. This was the essence of my commentary.
Fourth, I have no “personal grudge against Mr Robert Corbin,” as the writer suggested. I have known Mr Corbin for practically all my adult life. We have had a good, cordial relationship. We communicate periodically, and I made my views known to him privately before I stated them publicly.
Fifth, the writer claims that I said “the PNC gained five fewer seats than it should have – based on the numbers of African-Guyanese in the population, given the PR system, and the assumption that every African votes for the Afro-ethnic party.” This is a reckless disregard for the truth. I said no such thing. My only reference to the PNCR’s loss of five seats in Parliament was my contention that “the responsibility” for Raphael Trotman’s withdrawal from the PNCR, which led to that loss, “rests squarely on the shoulders of the Leader.”
Sixth, the writer claims that the “Two main ethnic groups make up 90 percent of the population, one group, the Indians has a significant advantage over the Africans, about 8-10 percent. So do we need an election strategist from America (think Carville), to tell us why the Indian party will always win and the African party will always lose?… This trend will continue for another 50 election cycles unless the PNC undertakes genuine reform.” He added that “The PNC has demonstrated repeatedly that its party can only be led by an African – all this has done is to reinforce to the nation that this party is determined to retain its pure African character.”
This comment is offensive. The writer is so caught up in his congenital chauvinisms that he enthusiastically embraced ethnic, racial triumphalism on the one hand but simultaneously tries to conflate what is recognizably the precursor for national progress and development – racial unity and equality, with his racist appeal.
Seventh, the PNCR is the only major multiethnic, multiracial political party in Guyana. Its deputy leader is of East Indian descent. Its central executive has historically been racially balanced. Numerous East Indians have dominated the top echelon of its leadership as well as its respective governments throughout history.
Desmond Hoyte was so inclusive in his politics and governance of Guyana , that he earned the name Desmond Persaud.
Eighth, why doesn’t the writer take his advice on racial balance and parity to the PPP? Throughout history. the PPP has been an Indian party that has preached the doctrine of “Apan Jat” as a means to mobilize and unify East Indians not to “split the vote” and to demonize their political opponents. I challenge the writer to state which African Guyanese is the PPP willing to make its leader?
I challenge the writer to take his message about racial diversity to the PPP.
Yours faithfully,
Rickford Burke
