Dear Editor,
Mr Stephen Campbell was formally inducted into the national political life in 1957. He joined the National Labour Front (NLF), one of five political parties that competed in the general elections that year. This opportunity offered Mr Campbell a good chance to enter the highest level decision-making position in the country. From that experience there has been a chain of Amerindians who entered politics in Guyana over the years, in both of the two main political parties, the PPP and the PNC, and also the small third force political parties like the United Force, etc.
Today also we have Amerindians serving as ministers in the government, while some in the opposition are shadow ministers. There are also those serving as members of parliament on the ground in their regions, and when it’s time to attend parliamentary sittings for the nation, they go to participate. Some will be seated on the incumbent government’s side while the others will be on the opposition side.
This is something good to see: the inclusion of Amerindian people participating in the highest decision-making forum in the country. However, the question I wrestle with is this: when our people open their mouths to speak and give ideas or make recommendations, etc, I wonder how seriously their voices are taken by the dominant non-Amerindian groups in parliament? And how seriously are they being listened to? I want to believe that their coastal politician counterparts still look down on them as not being capable of executing leadership positions in society, except for a few, whom they normally see as political puppets.
In this context, what about selecting members of the Indigenous community as prime ministerial or presidential candidates for the May 11 election? Editor, please don’t get me wrong; I am not against the move of selecting supposedly ‘ideal and qualified persons’ from the two major parties to be prime ministerial candidates. I do believe that the two chosen are both eligible for the positions. However, couldn’t the APNU-AFC coalition and the PPP/C have given thought to giving an Amerindian a try as the prime minister or even president of Guyana too? Wouldn’t it be good to have an Indigenous leader like Evo Morales of Bolivia for Guyana, to at least bring a change and make Guyana create world history? Editor, if the PPP/C and APNU-AFC had given a thought to selecting an Amerindian for a leadership position for this election, wouldn’t this be in keeping with the song they usually sing of integrating Guyana’s Indigenous people and providing ‘equal opportunity’ like the rest in society?
On this note, I wish to say that I am sure there are qualified and long-standing Amerindian political leaders in the country like Dr George Norton of the PNCR and Mrs Carloyn Rodrigues-Birkett of the incumbent PPP/C who are capable of leading Guyana.
I would like to see the day when two Amerindians, one from the main opposition, and one from the governing party contest for leadership in Guyana. It’s a pity this cannot be for the upcoming election, where I guess I could have seen Dr Norton and Carloyn Rodrigues-Birkett running for the leadership of Guyana, because it would have been very interesting to see the impacts of these two hinterland political leaders on the dominant race-based politics and coastal hegemony.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address provided)