Dear Editor,
Mr Prem Misir in the Chronicle assails us with statistics and figures in his quest to challenge those who accuse the PPP administration of marginalization along ethnic lines.
Let us assume these figures are accurate – this is not the point.
If he examines most public sectors based on a head count, he can produce a strong compelling argument about no marginalization. But therein rests the absurdity of his statistics and figures.
The question is not about those figures, but who really controls or make the vital decisions – City Hall is but the classic example.
We can do very little unless the Minister says so. We dismissed errant subordinate workers, but because they happened to be well connected, the Minister using our moribund Local Government Laws, orders their reinstatement. There is no need to burden this letter with legion examples save to make the point that Prem Misir’s figurers are fanciful and fail to debunk the widely held view of hegemony being in place, or total control, by the powers that be.
But Dr Misir needs to address the allied issue of the daily dose of historical distortion handed out to this nation.
Dr Misir, I will bet my right hand that come Carifesta X little or no credit will be given to the architect of Carifesta and its impact since. No credit will be given to the Dolphins, the Pilgrims, the Bunny Fernandes, the Shirley Field-Ridleys and the Steve Narains.
Look at the 40th Independence Anniversary Magazine Cover. It pushed into near obscurity the man who received the Instruments of Independence from Her Majesty’s representative and one of our champions for Independence. We can expect a repeat of the infamous Cricket World Cup brochure, which ignored the cultural relevance of five or our six ethnic groups.
I challenge Dr Misir to respond to the real issue of who controls what, I beg of him, do not mention the Prime Minister as representing the Afro-Guyanese group in his statistics, we’ll all laugh to death.
The great tragedy of all this is the fact that the majority of our people, in particular our young people and the mature ones like myself, are eager to get rid of this foolish race thing – we want to love, live together.
Who cares about race, when Sarwan and Chanderpaul as they did yesterday made us all proud and happy to belong to the same group – as Guyanese and Caribbean people.
Who cares when little Jessica Stephenson brings a gold at swimming, or when Big Truck beats the stuffings out of his opponent in the ring.
Let us work to make our motto a real thing and end this foolish contentious demonstration to prove falsehoods and the work of those who benefit from the racial divide. They are the enemy – we must come to realize that common peril.
Yours faithfully,
Hamilton Green JP
Mayor
