Dear Editor,
I wish to respond in these pages to a recent missive titled “When the carnage was instigated by a PPP Minister and the Phantom group, people sought solace in North America ‘’ by Mr. Hamilton Green, a former Prime Minister. Now, it would be easy for one to glance at such a headline and simply write it off as degenerate political pandering (which it is). However, this dangerous, false rhetoric has been used as a mobilization tool before, preying on the instincts of fear. It is the civic duty of every right thinking Guyanese to respond to such misinformation condignly when it rears its ugly head for the benefit of the young generation and those yet to come.
In his missive, the writer states: “Records would show that during the PPP Government, 1957 – 1964, large numbers of Guyanese, Indo and Afro moved to the United States, a sprinkling settling in the Caribbean and even Surinam. This movement north continued unabated until this day.” He continues with the following: “When the carnage was instigated by a PPP Minister and the Phantom group, people sought solace in North America. Today, this northern drift continues.” By choosing to focus on 1957-1964, then suddenly somersaulting into the early 2000s, the writer is doing a grave disservice by conveniently excluding the entire 1964-1992 period, literally leaving out nearly three decades of history in the process. But why make such a time jump without any semblance of an explanation? Agenda. Agenda. Agenda.
Sincerely,
Nikhil Sankar