Amid criticisms that the garb of Guyana’s representatives at the Tokyo Olympics is overpoweringly red, the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport today said it had nothing to do with the selection.
The Guyana delegation took part today in the opening ceremony in Tokyo, Japan clad in the red outfit.
In a post on its Facebook page, the ministry said:
“Kindly note that the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport is not and was never involved in the selection or design of the Olympic outfits. This is strictly the domain of the Guyana Olympic Association”.
Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport Charles Ramson has issued the following statement on the matter:
“I have seen comments critical of the colours of the uniform of the Guyana Olympic team and spurious allegations directed towards the Ministry for attempting to politicize the uniform in party colours.
“First, allow me to remind everyone that this is a time to celebrate the achievements of our young Guyanese who made it to the world stage to shine the spotlight on our beautiful country.
“For those young Guyanese Olympians, this is the fulfilment of one of their lifelong dreams. Are we really going to allow our petty political allegiance to diminish their deserving moment of glorious achievement? Are we that selfish? We must not be and we must never be. There are times to fight and there are times to unite. Internally we may have our differences, but on the world stage we must always remember “We Are One Guyana”. Never forget that!
“For the sake of clarity, however, the Ministry was not and was never involved with the design of the uniform which includes the choice of colours. This is strictly the domain of the Guyana Olympic Association and I am advised that all of our national colours were represented.
“As everyone is aware, I have been critical for 5 years of the APNU-AFC’s attempt to brainwash Guyanese with their deliberate saturation of their green and yellow party colours which even callously made its way onto state institutions and buildings. It would, therefore, be hypocritical of me to do exactly as I criticized.
“It is important to note too that the discontent now being expressed by some persons from the political arena were noticeably absent when “green and yellow” became the order of the day. It may very well be that this is the reason why this discussion may have taken place in the first place. Nonetheless, the public can be assured that the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport will never seek to direct that uniforms, state buildings or state paraphernalia be dominated by any political party colours.
“Guyana and Guyanese, it is our time to shine – shine bright – shine as one! #weareoneguyana”
There have been a series of comments on social media criticising the outfit which is predominantly red with yellow, black and white panels.
On her Facebook page, journalist Miranda La Rose said: “I don’t know who designed our uniform for our Guyana team at the Tokyo Olympics. Needless to say, we as a nation lost a golden opportunity to show the diversity of our nation in the colours of the Golden Arrowhead? Why the dominance of red? Without our flags, we could easily pass for a black China team or even neighboring Trinidad and Tobago or even Germany. Green land of Guyana. Green a most prominent colour on our flag was missing or I can’t see properly. I must say I am disappointed in the uniform”.