Dear Editor,
Herein, I respond to Ras Khafra, who sought to give legitimacy to his mischief and self-appointment in a response to my earlier letter of Sunday, May 21, 2023. First, Khafra continues to refer to a dissolved cluster that was established for the specific purpose of identifying nominees of the African Guyanese community to represent the community on the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) and the Women and Gender Commission. The life of that cluster ended when those nominees were identified.
In my earlier letter, I acknowledged the right of the former members of that cluster, and in fact any group of African Guyanese organisations to come together in a cooperative/collaborative effort, among themselves and for themselves. The cluster that Khafra is now the self-appointed leader of is not such a body, and not made-up of persons nominated by their organisations for that purpose. He solicited the assistance of individuals to craft a position paper/report. He then proceeded to describe them as representatives of organizations. No request was made of the organizations to appoint representatives to a cluster that Khafra was forming; nor did the individuals consent to be members of a representative cluster of the African Guyanese community; nor are they signatories of a letter to the President in any capacity, although their names are mentioned, by Khafra, as representatives of organizations, in his letter.
It is by virtue of his appointment as the African Guyanese representative on the ERC that he appointed himself to lead the cluster which no longer exists. The identification of Dr. DaSilva and Eric Philips as representatives of IDAPADA-G and ACDA, respectively exposes his scheme. Both organisations and the individuals have distanced themselves from Khafra`s mischief. In fact, most, if not all of his proclaimed cluster members have indicated that they were not representing organizations. Khafra has no moral ground to stand on, in this matter; and in his attempt to judge the actions of others. That notwithstanding, I will trash the remaining garbage of his letter. Khafra snidely stated that I never attended any of his meetings, true, but I was never invited. In fact, he made contact with me and asked me to remove myself from the WhatsApp group that I had established to facilitate the work of the original cluster. I advised him that the cluster no longer existed and that I would dissolve the group.
While, it is not my intention to be dragged into an exchange on IDPADA-G`s internal affairs with Khafra, since Khafra over two years ago publicly disassociated the Rastafari Council from IDPADA-G, and late last year sought re-entry but did not complete the required documentation, it should be noted that his reference to the Pan African Movement Guyana and ACDA as organizations that “took a step back” from IDPADA-G is evidence of his sordid state of mind. Those organizations never stepped back. They have an unbroken association with IDPADA-G. Laughable is his contention that ‘ironically IDPADA-G was among those which sought external intervention’. Those are but examples of Khafra`s mischief and barefaced disinformation.
While Khafra seeks to accuse the leadership of IDPADA-G of being political, it is his posture that seeks to infuse partisan politics into IDPADA-G. He explicitly pledges absolute loyalty to the Government and advocates for the exclusion of APNU personnel from the leadership of IDPADA-G. IDAPDA-G is loyal to the African Guyanese community and the goals of the Decade and embraces all like-minded entities. Incidentally, IDPADA-G convened a special meeting on Sunday, May 24, 2023 at which its membership overwhelmingly reaffirmed its commitment to the organization and pledged to continue the pursuit of the goals of the UN declared decade, including reaching out to the Government for dialogue, although attempts are being made to supplant IDPADA-G by bodies that do not have a mandate from the African Guyanese community.
Sincerely,
Vincent Alexander
Chairperson
IDPADA-G
