Dear Editor,
Ravi Dev is at it again. He and his Indo Caribbean Diaspora Network (ICDN) friends (see icdn.today) daily diminish the value of Africans because their Hindu nationalism, like Modi, is based on preconceived notions of race and religion. His most recent article entitled “Indi-genous lands are not reparations” show the extent to which Indians, like Ravi Dev, believe Africans are “blacks” and therefore have no intellect or worth much. In his article, Ravi Dev use the same intellectually immoral technique of first setting the tables with lies. So, Ravi states “We cannot fail to point out that Amerindian land titling was subjected to extremely gratuitous attacks from members of the APNU/AFC administration, of which Eric Philips was an official of the State Asset Recovery Agency (SARA).” What a juxtaposition to please his glowing constituency of intellectual misfits.
First Ravi, I am on record, in speeches given in CARICOM, the African Union, Holland, Brazil, Colombia and the United States, as having said Amerindians in Guyana deserve land rights because of colonialism. I have also equally said Africans in Guyana deserve land rights. Second, Ravi, tries to paint me as an Advisor to the former President Granger and the APNU/AFC, and hence a creator of anti-Indian policies, I was never an Advisor to President Granger. Go Google it, and you will find an article stating I was not. As a matter of fact, Ravi Dev knows this as he was asked by the Ministry of the Presidency to retract this statement. Third, Ravi Dev, the State Assets Recovery Agency (SARA) had absolutely nothing to do with Amerindian Land Titling. In the two years I worked at SARA investigating over 350 cases of stolen state assets, Dr. Clive Thomas, Aubrey Retemyer and I never met with President Granger, individually or collectively, to discuss SARA matters. Fourth, Ravi, in the 4 years President Granger was in Office, I met with him twice as a Member of ACDA to present a 10-point plan for African Guyanese Development after he had announced a 10-point plan for Amerindian development. Other than that, I saw President Granger at two official events: a QC Reunion and at the Launch of the International Decade.
Having dealt with these, let us now discuss the issue of Amerindian Lands and Reparations. Ravi Dev is a lawyer so he knows better or should, unless he practices what many Presidents and CEOs do, the principles of plausible deniability. In essence, he knows but purposefully doesn’t know. Ravi knows the definition of reparations under international law. If he doesn’t, I can send him an 18-page treatise of the definition, intent and operational aspects of reparations so he can stop spreading his Trumpian falsehoods. Under International Law, the Amerindian Act of 2006 is a Reparatory Justice Act for Amerindians in Guyana. Ravi knows this. Ravi knows there are several systems in international law relating to the concept of reparation for the harm suffered by the victims of grave violations of human rights. Ravi knows reparation covers restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition.
If Ravi Dev still doesn’t understand reparations, then I would advise him to speak with Guyana’s greatest human rights lawyer, Ms. Melinda Janki. I believe she was the author of the Amerindian Act of 2006. If Ravi Dev does not want to speak with Ms. Janki because of her nationalist and inspirational activist position on Guyana’s oil contract, then perhaps I can provide Ravi Dev with the email and WhatsApp number of recently retired International Court of Justice Jamaican Judge, Patrick Robinson, who held two global two-day sessions on reparations and who engaged the Brattle group to perform a valuation of reparations. By the way, the Dutch owe People of African Descent in Guyana 50 billion dollars according to the Brattle report. Why did Ravi write this article and why did Ravi Dev state I was committing slander? It is part of a strategy to undermine African rights in Guyana and the Caribbean. The reason Ravi Dev states this is slander is because his modus operandi is to attack people and not their ideas. A typical ICDN trademark.
After 10 years of hard work by the CARICOM Reparations Commission, of which I am a Vice Chair, the Dutch King and Dutch Prime Minister apologized for slavery, as a crime against African humanity. Suddenly, Ravi Dev and the ICDN began writing letters (can be Googled) to complain that the CARICOM Reparations Commission was about “black people” and that there should be “reparations for Indentureship”. This advocacy included a sophisticated but shameful media program aimed at blaming Sir Hilary Beckles, the Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, who is also the Chairman of the CARICOM Reparations Commission, for committing a racist act. The racist underpinnings of this media campaign was to create confusion in the reparations movement in the Caribbean and to delay the momentum being made by reparations groups in Guyana, the Caribbean and around the world. Well Ravi, indentureship is not and never was a “second slavery”. Portuguese and Chinese Indentured persons throughout the Caribbean and the Diaspora want nothing to do with this type of racist ideology. Indentured servants went through a rigorous recruiting process in India, had all their religious requirements met, was paid, kept their culture and obtained significant benefits from indentureship in Guyana and the Carib-bean. Any analysis would show this and of the 238,000 that came to Guyana, only 75,000 returned because the benefits here were far superior than returning to India.
I would like to inform Ravi and his cohorts that the concept of “reparations for indentureship” has been vehemently rejected by indigenous and African reparations groups in the United States, Europe, Brazil, Colombia and Africa. There is no legal basis for it. Indentureship was not a crime against humanity and as I stated, if People of Indian Descent in the Caribbean and elsewhere want to pursue reparations for indentureship, then a separate Commission should be established to do so. One cannot pursue a criminal case and a labour dispute in front of the ICJ. Stop being a Trojan horse to the CARICOM and Global Reparations Movement. Last month, I made a presentation to the Odara Institute of Black Women in Brazil who on 25 July had their annual 1-million-woman march in Brazil for reparations and social justice. They were absolutely bewildered and angered that indentureship was being used as a ploy to trivialize the sufferings of their ancestors. Grassroots peoples throughout the Caribbean are horrified that any government would seek equivalency between indigenous genocide and slavery versus contract labour.
I can easily inform you, Ravi Dev, that regardless of the advocacy for reparations for indentureship in Suriname, Guyana and Trinidad, grassroots Caribbean people of African and Indigenous descent will erupt if indentureship is grouped with reparations for Indigenous genocide and African enslavement. The global reparations movement would never accept such a social, politically driven and racially developed construct. Ravi Dev’s letter has given the history of what happened at the Guyana Independence negotiations with the British. All of this is true. What is also true is that at Independence, the government of Guyana inherited the rights (lands, laws etc.,) and liabilities (obligations, reparations etc.) from the British government. If a post-independence Guyana government can provide reparations for Amerindians through the Amerindian Act of 2006, then it must also provide reparations to People of African descent in Guyana because 473,000 died to build Guyana while clearing and indigenizing 15,000 square miles or 18% of Guyana. At least, if not as a lawyer, Ravi Dev should have the decency to accept this legal fact.
Ravi knows that Amerindians were partners with the Dutch and the English in enforcing slavery. Ravi should know that history has hidden the fact that one of the reasons the 1763 Rebellion failed and resulted in the defeat of national hero Cuffy, was because Amerindian groups sealed the national heroes from moving from Berbice to Demerara and Essequibo and hunted them down for the Dutch. If Ravi doesn’t know this, and again wants to practice selective memory, then I encourage Ravi Dev to visit the Theatre Guild on 31st August where Madeline Kors, the author of “Blood on the River”, and the 1763 Rebellion, will make a presentation. Kindly ask Madeline about the role of Amerindian tribes in Guyana. Surely with this history, Amerindian groups should want reparations for People of African descent because they too, under international law, can be asked to apologies and pay reparations. Fortunately, People of African descent are not vindictive, and would not go that far with our Amerindian brothers and sisters, as there is quite an intermixing of races. Ravi, if you want to have an intellectual argument, then begin by speaking the truth. Stop slanting facts and creating new history, to deny Africans what is rightfully theirs.
One of your friends at ICDN wrote a few years ago that Indians cleared more land than Africans. I responded with the fact that the Venn Commission highlighted that Africans cleared 15,000 square miles or 18% of Guyana. Now Guyana is still 80% forested. 18 PLUS 80 equals 98. What are the reasons for this avarice and hate? Ravi, kindly ask your friends in ICDN to stop pressuring CARICOM Heads of States to force Indentureship on the CARICOM Reparations Agenda so that our Heads of States are not embarrassed by the international media. The President of Guyana will be in the United Kingdom to receive an Award in September. I was informed that HARDtalk wants to discuss indentureship and reparations with His Excellency because the HARDtalk anchor felt embarrassed with his last interview with His Excellency. Dear Ravi, I thank you for your letter as it allows Guyanese to be educated about their history. But please Ravi, in your future letters, kindly have the common decency and courtesy as a professional (for lawyers lie all the time) to speak the truth. In Mahaicony, where I grew up, “once bitten, twice shy” has been replaced by “once bitten, twice bite up”. Intellect is not a function of race even though your ICDN group preaches this.
Sincerely,
Eric Phillips
1990-91 White House Fellow
