Dear Editor,
When a columnist makes a charge of racism, if you do not particularly like his writings or his political credo you can simply dismiss his postulations as vacuous ramblings, but when the immediate past president of a nation makes those charges the entire nation should take note and ask some hard questions. It is odd that Mr Bharrat Jagdeo chose the funeral service of a religious leader to display such crass levels of insensitivity to the bereaved by his (now) infamous malevolent outpourings.
Mr Jagdeo has to explain to the nation what the source of this resurgence of anti-Indian sentiment is. Surely with two dominant racial groups, negative sentiments towards Indians must (by logical deduction) be coming from Africans. One can deduce also that there was a previous period of anti-Indianism in Guyana and that this had waned (or was suppressed) and there is now a period of resurgence. Mr Jagdeo needs to tell the nation when the previous period of anti-Indian sentiment was, when it waned and when he noticed this grand resurgence. What section of the Guyanese population has called for Indians to stay out of schools and not participate in the public service? Who has been calling for qualified Indo-Guyanese to be denied good jobs in the civil service?
Is there merit in Mr Jagdeo’s statements or is he reaffirming the PPP’s trademark of nasty appeal to racial sentiments? Is this his usual clarion call for Indo-Guyanese to close ranks and rally around the PPP, the so called protector of Indians, because of the possibility of fresh elections? Was he making good use of the standard operating procedure of the PPP, and read the same scare-tactic script?
If Indians are made to feel that there are legions of anti-Indians out to get them, their best resort is to run into the saving arms of the PPP, which despite its failings will protect Indians from the people who are trying to deny them a good education, good jobs in the public service and dominance in commerce.
What is Mr Jagdeo’s interpretation of anti-Indianism? As evidenced in the ongoing libel case to which he made reference, is it that qualified Afro-Guyanese with decades of experience in the Foreign Service have been bypassed in favour of Indians who are comparatively unqualified? Is it where Afro-Guyanese in the public service are replaced with Indians of lesser qualification and experience? Is it the withholding of hard-earned pensions and gratuities after retirement, or is it the habit of writing to the employing agency of hard-working Afro-Guyanese seeking their termination?
The funeral utterance of Mr Jagdeo is probably an explanation of why things turned out the way they did, in that, his policies were intentionally skewed. Or is it that Mr Jagdeo is not man enough to stand in court and defend his record on race relations and that this latest flare-up represents escapist antics? So by deduction can one construe, while in office he was ‘astute’ enough to recognize rising sentiments against Indians, being an Indian himself, he felt compelled to do something about it, as such he enacted a grand rectification scheme?
The Jagdeo flavour of growing anti-Indianism is oxymoronic. Perhaps Guyana needs a strong dose of completely nonexistent, anti-African sentiments; then government contracts, public land distribution, funding in their economically functional zones, public infrastructure, scholarships, foreign service postings and senior public service jobs will go their way. In parting, a few words to Mr Jagdeo: He instituted legal proceedings to clear his name and prove to the nation that he was not a racist and that he has not pursued racist policies during his term of office, so instead of jumping around the country ejecting vile comments, he should collect his evidence and take it to court with him. He has ample opportunity to defend his record in court.
Yours faithfully,
Leonard Craig
