Dear Editor,
I am now very pleased that that ‘gift‘ from the Jagdeo-Ramotar regime to ACDA has been refused. While there appears to be a welcome form of democracy within ACDA, there seems to be no real agreed direction on where the organisation is going.
ACDA has failed, largely, to mobilise the Guyanese people to force this regime to seriously distribute the wealth of this country to people of African descent in a fair and equitable manner.
The organisation needs to develop links with decent Indian brothers and sisters in Guyana and abroad to fight for a system of governance that can distribute our wealth to every section of our society, so it is not shared to relatives and friends of the regime.
We can all learn from our past, which has now become Guyanese history and culture, and of the struggles of our African brothers and sisters, which essentially is the cornerstone of our Guyana.
The brilliant battles against the slavery and indentureship imposed by the colonial masters must be learnt about.
It is true that people of African descent have not been treated with respect and equality by this regime and we must collectively expose this ‘divide and rule‘ tactic to the very end.
This window-dressing type politics, where we place a person of a particular race group in a position of authority to demonstrate that we are not biased must stop. We must properly educate all of our people and place them in positions of authority because of the person’s ability and skill in carrying out the given tasks.
Our society is stratified into upper, middle and lower classes.
The majority of our people are from the working class and peasantry, and they consist of people of all races, but they are often used by the middle and upper classes for their own political ends.
It’s the task of ACDA, and all of us, to take that bold step and set up a new form of politics, where race will no longer play a decisive role in the future governance of our country. We all have our tasks cut out for us; let us begin now.
Yours faithfully,
Jinnah Rahman
