When AFC presidential candidate Khemraj Ramjattan told residents of Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice to stop fearing African Guyanese, he did not intend to incite racial hostility but was rather urging the gathering to pursue racial harmony, the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) has ruled.
The ERC made the ruling based on a complaint made by the Indian Arrival Committee (IAC) against the AFC following a report by online news site demerarawaves.com. Ramjattan reportedly made the statements at a public meeting held in the village in January. The IAC complained that the statement by Ramjattan was one capable of racial incitement and was in contravention of the Representation of the People (Amendment) Act No 1 of 2001 or the Racial Hostility Act Cap 23:01.
The ERC said that on its own accord it took steps to investigate the said complaint but that in the absence of a record/transcript of the actual event, it had to rely solely on the report carried by demerarawaves.com. “The Commission having reviewed and deliberated on this reported alleged statement was unable to verify the accuracy of same in reviewing the report there is no verbatim statement that could be attributed to the Presidential candidate of the AFC,” the ERC said.
Further the ERC said that the statement, if correct, could not be reviewed in isolation of the report as reported by the news website. “The report, in itself, does not state or seek to ascribe this particular statement to the AFC’s leader, in fact the report only headlines this statement. The contents of the report, however, notes that the Alliance for Change (AFC) ‘want [s] you to aspire to embrace racial harmony’ and to ‘unlearn racial politics and [to] go home and urge younger and older family members to do likewise,’” ERC noted.
“The Commission finds that the AFC’s candidate, if reported correctly, had set out on a theme of embracing the racial harmony and the Commission, in considering the statement, has found that it was not intended to excite hostility or ill-will against any section of the public; nor can it result in racial or ethnic violence or hatred in the context and meaning of the legislation,” it added.
The ERC said that it requested that the IAC provide the Commission with a copy of the transcript of the speech made by the Ramjattan. This, however, was not forthcoming, the ERC said. “Further the Commission inquired, but was made aware that there is no recording of this meeting,” the ERC said.
