Dear Editor,
Over the past few days two events took place that have once more brought to the fore the issue of race, class and politics.
The first of these was the outburst of Mr. Hamilton Green at a conference commemorating the 101st birth anniversary of Forbes Burnham. At that event Mr. Green, in praising Burnham’s performance urged his gathering to do as Burnham did and rig elections to get power if that was indeed what he had done.
The other event was a review of a book by an Indian-Nationalist Clem Seecharan. It was reviewed by another nationalist Baytoram Ramharack. This book is about Cheddi Jagan, another of our politicians who, like Burnham, played a central role in the politics of our country.
This group (Indian-Nationalist) has a lot in common with the Afro-Nationalist group. They want to put Indian pon top. These two groups are actually on the two sides of the same coin.
The major difference is their attitudes to Cheddi Jagan and Forbes Burnham.
As I noted above the Afro-Nationalists idolize Burnham. They sing his praises loudly, even when many of the measures he took pauperized our country and made it one of the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
It does not matter to them that he worked with the colonialists against the national movement that was fighting for independence. It does not matter that he used his influence to work with the CIA and fomented racial riots. The legacy of which still affects us. For them he put the Black Man “pon top”.
On the other hand, the Indian-Nationalists hate Cheddi Jagan. They cannot ever forgive him for not pursuing a racist political line. They despise his working class and patriotic stance.
In fact, these same Indian-Nationalists shower praises on Burnham for working against our country and siding with colonial and imperial forces so that he would be made the Prime Minister. Their admiration for treachery and calling it ‘cleverness’ is really astonishing.
The Indian-Nationalist hatred for Jagan can also be seen by how much they admire and lavish praises on Indian leaders of that period who were rejected by the people and who collaborated with the imperialist power and with Burnham. One case that comes to mind is Dr. Balwant Singh.
Immediately after the Wismar disaster in May of 1964 when thousands of Indians were evacuated from the mining town to Georgetown at Ruimveldt Industrial site, Dr. Singh went to try to instigate the victims to adopt racism and to condemn Dr. Jagan and the PPP. The people chased him away, they supported Dr. Jagan’s call for racial and working-class unity.
For that, the Indian-Nationalists have a disdain for Indo-Guyanese working people because of their unstinting support for Jagan. They fabricate all kinds of airy-fairy theories.
For instance, they say that Indians should not have supported Dr. Jagan’s politics because Indians are natural businesspeople. That is sheer junk. The vast majority of Indian Guyanese, I dare say more than 90% are workers and farmers. Indeed, they worked and still work in some of the most difficult jobs in this country.
It is not surprising that they grasped the message of Dr. Jagan and supported and continue to support his brand of politics.
The few Indian businesspeople who supported Dr. Jagan could be described the way Cheddi described them as patriotic capitalists. These were people that opposed foreign intervention.
What those two groups are trying to do is to obscure the class issue in politics by covering it with the racial blanket.
The PNC leadership, and those Afro-nationalists outside the PNC, are really capitalist by nature. In all the years they have been in power they used the state apparatus to enrich themselves. It is for that reason Dr. Jagan had categorized them as a Bureaucratic Capitalist Elite. They formed alliances with some of the rich Indian businesses and even foreign businesses (note the Exxon Deal) to further their own enrichment.
In the process they have pauperized all the working people of our country, including the Afro-Guyanese masses.
Therefore, their racial appeal is designed to hide their real intention which is to enrich themselves and their cohorts in the local and foreign private sector while holding on to support from the Afro-working people. This is the main purpose of their racism.
The Indian-Nationalist are working hard to push the PPP on the same path. Some of them have great wealth and would like to see the PPP transformed ideologically as a party similar to the PNC. They, like their counterparts in the Afro-Guyanese community, have no care for the working class, including the Indian working class, whom they despise because of their loyalty to Dr. Jagan’s working-class ideology.
The manoeuvring of these two groups proves the point that the PPP has been the only force that consistently fought for National and Working-class unity. The real Afro and Indo patriots can be found in the PPP/Civic.
At a public meeting on June 17th, 1964, during the height of racially instigated violence Cheddi Jagan said that many people (Indian) approached him and were advocating that the PPP take the same stance as the PNC. He said “…I can understand their fears (Indians) and their feelings, but I have had to tell them that the PPP was not interested in putting Indians on top but to see justice for all!” He went on to say that “… the solution to the problems of this country lies in the unity of the working class …”
He died with that conviction!
We must reject the politics of these two race centred groups. Guyanese have a bright future if we succeed in uniting all our people as Cheddi Jagan worked for throughout his life.
Yours faithfully,
Donald Ramotar
