APNU+AFC Parliamentarian Amanza Walton-Desir has accused the governing PPP/C, their supporters and various “surrogates” of deliberating misinterpreting comments she made in an attempt to malign her character.
“The interpretation that the PPP/C and their sycophant surrogates placed on my words confirms that they are content to continue the ruinous racist rhetoric that has plagued Guyana since her independence and one which continues to arrest her development. Their propaganda machinery has been put into over drive to paint me as a racist,” Walton-Desir declared in a video statement on Saturday.
The issue centres around an analysis provided by the politician during an appearance on the talk show ‘Politics 101’ with Dr David Hinds.
During the show which is aired on KAMSTV, Walton-Desir described supporters of the PPP/C as “mentally lazy.”
“Unfortunately that side of the political divide, the PPP/C have a base who prefer if they say this is going to happen – that these men are going to come and rape your daughters and kill your children they believe that because the burden of sorting things out for themselves is too great so they remain trapped all the while believing they are free and have the right to self-determine. They don’t have the right of self-determination because freedom requires the responsibility. True freedom requires work, it requires investment…the minute you take the role of self-determination it requires work so we have a bunch of mentally lazy people. The PPP/C understands this very, very well and they capitalize on it,” she argued while positing that the supporters of the PNCR are far more inquisitive and inquiring with a greater appreciation of the democratic process.
The parliamentarian’s comments were pounced on by the PPP/C with the party’s official Facebook page reposting a clip from the show with the caption “APNU+AFC Member of Parliament Amanza Walton-Desir says Indo-Guyanese are mentally lazy people.”
Additionally the Indian Action Com-mittee (IAC) says it has lodged a complaint with the Ethnic Relations Commis-sion (ERC) over the remarks.
In a statement on Saturday, the IAC said having listened to the comments it is of the firm view that, in the context of the country’s politics, there is no ambiguity that they were directed at Indo-Guyanese.
Walton-Desir addressed this assumption in her response noting that “in their crazed frenzy to deliberately twist my words they have forced every Guyanese to ponder [whether] the PPP/C is suggesting that they consider only Indo-Guyanese to be their supporters.”
She maintained that there exists a section of the Guyanese population which does not wish to do the work required to truly exercise self-determination and therefore they are mentally lazy.
“The PPP/C knows this and capitalizes on it…the PPP/C takes advantage of the fact that by and large we allow propaganda to take root in our minds and neglect to enquire and investigate for ourselves and so doing we allow lies because they are so oft repeated to become our truth,” the politician reiterated adding that at no time did she say that Indo-Guyanese are mentally lazy.
Walton-Desir explained that the one and half minute exchange being bandied about is part of a one hour discussion which addressed a myriad of issues and included leader of the AFC Khemraj Ramjattam. She noted that during the discussion Ramjattan commended her for “the anti-racist theme in her politics”.
