Dear Editor,
It is not easy for a Guyanese born before the turn of the millennium to be objective in the context of race in relation to politics in Guyana. Thus it is my opinion that any Guyanese person over 23 years of age will struggle to be objective in that context. A person born in the year 2000 would have taken 11 Plus Common Entrance exams in the 8th year of the first PPP Government after Independence, sat CXCs around the time the APNU + AFC Coalition won the 2015 elections and just become eligible to vote in 2020 – a rather normal political sequence applicable to many parts of the world where life is punctuated by periodic elections. They can also find work if they want. For older Guyanese it is not so straightforward. Some were either spoilt or marginalized by the 28-years of PNC rule – then some were either spoilt or marginalized by 23 years of PPP rule. The concern I seek to address here is the apparent influence some US-based Guyanese social media influencers have had and might continue to have unless they are somehow checked and stopped in their proverbial tracks. I consider the actions of such Guyanese as unpatriotic without valid reason and clearly inimical to the interests of the progeny of the Guyanese they purport to keep informed about happenings in the Homeland. It cannot be patriotic to paint a dire picture of what is going on in one’s country only for political gain and not the revelation of unfolding truth. Such selfish lies will only serve to deter believers thereof from embracing their birthright.
A US-based group called the CGID recently sponsored a conference in Washington DC to discuss discrimination amidst the claim that “Black people are under subjugation” and that a state of “apartheid” exists in Guyana. I saw much of a lengthy Facebook video clip featuring the CGID Chairman promoting the conference, in which he also stated that “they want to tell us we are less than a human being”. As far as I am aware, the person mainly responsible for publicly stating these assertions does not visit Guyana at all – hasn’t done so in years and is hardly likely to do so any time soon. A person who is patriotic to any degree would not gratuitously malign his country. I have not been sent any post-Conference CGID update so I cannot comment one way or another about whether the conference was claimed to be a success or just fizzled out as a non-event. What I can say with hand on heart, and I was summarily dismissed from a well-paid job when the current PPP/C Government won in 2020, is that I know nothing at all about the blatant discrimination alleged. It is worthy of note that those who cry discrimination do not ever provide cogent evidence thereof. A handful of political appointees were dismissed in 2020 as is normal service in any country of the world. That some persons like myself were collateral damage at that time because we worked for the ‘wrong’ agency had nothing to do with discrimination in any relevant context. It can easily be extrapolated from a reading of ‘Demerara Waves, 28 Sept 2023’ that the Opposition delegation attending the Washington DC conference arrived without any hard evidence to substantiate their support of the social media claims that they tacitly endorse. I can only imagine how excruciatingly embarrassing it was to be faced upon arrival in Washington DC, with the reasonable demand for more than hearsay reliance on CGID anecdotal claims and the isolated examples that are rehashed from time to time. I can think of one, in particular, involving an attorney and a WPC. I have every reason to believe, however, that President Irfaan Ali is sincere about fashioning a unified One Guyana. CGID and its cohorts must have cried tears of frustration and disappointment when they viewed the now viral video of our President being interviewed by two unsurprisingly snobbish journalists on ‘Good Morning Britain’. The President, simultaneously exuding the utmost poise and a measured earnestness, calmly and firmly put them in their proper place of being journalists experiencing the privilege of speaking with the President of the 17th largest oil producing country in the world – and 4th largest per capita. It is a fact well known by those of a certain age, that Guyanese based in the USA routinely ‘badmouthed’ Guyana during the 1980’s to early 90’s – a few even gaining political asylum! During that period traditional PNC and PPP supporters alike who had moved to the USA ‘badmouthed’ Guyana for the very same reasons. The reasons common to both were the crippled economy and the practical fallout of PNC Party Paramountcy. There were PPP supporters who in those times could arguably, and often did, also point with justification to race as a factor that seemed to loom large in practice because of the policy of Party Paramountcy. A Guyanese national who ‘badmouths’ Guyana today will in most circumstances be living in a time warp for Guyana is now a land of hope and opportunity. When the ‘badmouthing’ extends to race it becomes agenda-based. That said and contrary to what the statistics on GDP and Growth may suggest, the Guyanese people remain collectively poor as individuals – feeling it when food shopping and constantly cutting corners to get by. However, we have at this juncture of our history, a young leader who clearly enjoys meeting with people in communities across the length and breadth of Guyana in his worthy self-appointed mission to unify the Guyanese people.
Past leaders had priorities of their own times: like fighting for national independence, trying to consolidate that national independence, working with the IMF, turning a stagnated centrally controlled economy into a free market economy, and now today building a country befitting a soon-to-be major oil State. All past presidents have presided over a Guyana that is 85% pristine rainforests. President Ali has come in a time when the preservation of our rainforest has gained recognition as important to all mankind – a time when the unity of Guyanese as a people is more important than it ever was before. Meeting with the people in communities country-wide on a regular basis has no doubt sharpened the tantalize (Pron. “ta’an-lize”) skills the President no doubt honed at Saints and whilst playing and watching cricket growing up – as he is easy with humour when addressing crowds – and holds his own before any forum today fielding testing questions about Guyana and Guyana’s development with consummate ease. One Guyana is on! Let us make it happen. We really do need significant immigration to reverse our chronic brain drain and general labour shortages. Unless we are united, Guyanese of pre-oil Guyana heritage will face the prospect of becoming marginalized by organized immigrants within a generation. We must never allow that to happen.
Yours faithfully,
Ronald Bostwick
