I am not a practitioner of ethnic politics and will not be ensnared into that dead end. Lincoln Lewis or anyone else is free to promote and defend ethnic rights and engage in ethnic politics. But I believe that the solution to Guyana’s ethno-political problems requires a policy that supersedes ethnic fundamentalism. While an active member of two political parties, my personal flagship issue was shared governance, to which I was converted in 1977. It offers a political solution to the enduring problem in Guyana of ethno-political dominance. A political solution in Guyana is the only foundation on which ethnic rights and interests can be successfully addressed.
Between the period of 1968 and 1985 the PNC deprived the Indian community of its right to vote and to participate in the election of a government, destroyed the rice and sugar industries on it they relied and, except for a small minority, excluded it from the security forces and bureaucratic administration.