The politics of Guyanese Muslims

Jan 14, 2014 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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The role of religion in the cause of human rights is a well recorded one. It goes back to the Catholic Church in the fifties and its fight against the zealous communist aspirations of Cheddi Jagan.
Those who live in the present will never capture the essence of a past zeitgeist because psychologically it is impossible to do. The researcher can try as hard as he/she can to project his/her mind into the action of the main players of that era but the essential nuances will never be fully captured, thus misunderstanding is inevitable.
Historians after the fifties, sympathetic to Jagan’s anti-American radicalism, were hardly enamoured of the role of the Catholic Church. But can we today understand what was going through the mind of the Catholic Church at that time?
Mohan Ragbeer in his voluminous work, “the Indelible Red Stain,” reproduced an interview Cheddi Jagan gave to the Queen’s College magazine in the fifties in which he showered praise on one of the cruelest leaders in world history, Joseph Stalin. Why would business and church welcome such a person at the head of government?
Christianity as one of the main vehicles against the Jagan Government in the fifties became one of the chief bandwagon against the Burnham Government from the seventies onwards. This time the Catholic Church found an ally in the Anglican denomination. By this time, the Burnham Government had a formidable adversary in religion in general not only Christianity.
The Hindu and Muslim churches were essentially supporters of the PPP especially given the historical connections Jagan had with Yacoob Ally of the United Sadr Anjuman and Reepu Daman Persaud of the Maha Sabha. When Burnham engineered coups in both organizations and took them over, this only led to deeper religious involvement of the Hindus and Muslims against Burnham.
When a group was formed named the Guyana Anti-Discrimination Movement spearheaded by Indian professionals, both Hindus and Muslim priests were involved. In fact, a Muslim priest became the chairman of the Guyana Human Rights Association during the PNC Government.
The 1992 general elections brought the PPP to power and religious preoccupation with the authoritarian abuse of power took on a completely different shape from the epoch of the seventies and eighties. The Catholic Church withdrew from active involvement with human rights concerns; the Anglican Church under Bishop George developed a close relationship with the PPP Government.
Under the PPP leadership, the Hindu and Muslim churches continued their support for the PPP. But it was with the Jagdeo tenure that the Hindu and Muslim churches began to display crass hypocrisy with racially and political support for the Government.
Gone were the days when these two denominations were involved in open anti-government behaviour under the Burnham and Hoyte presidencies. The explanation of racial sympathy did not escape the pen of analysts.
President Jagdeo paid special attention to winning the support of the Muslim churches. By the time his tenure was up, the Central Islamic Organization of Guyana (CIOG), the main umbrella body of Muslims became shameless supporters of Mr. Jagdeo’s tyrannical regime, participating not only in state activities but also party functions. The CIOG featured prominently in Jagdeo’s circus at the National Stadium in September 2011 titled Day of Appreciation, a programme designed for election purposes.
Under Mr. Jagdeo’s reign, prominent members of the CIOG were given sensitive state jobs. The love relation has continued under President Ramotar. A few months ago, the youth arm of the CIOG, the Muslim Youth Organization shamelessly went into race baiting overdrive when they accused the PNC of being involved in criminal robberies against East Indian.
As with Diwali and Hindus, today the Muslim constituencies will take to their churches to pray to God. What will be missing are the memories of the seventies and eighties when Muslims felt it was a religious obligation to oppose bad government, the abuse of power and racial discrimination.
The only conclusion one can come to is that the Muslims felt that in those days it was right for Indians to oppose the government of the day because they were East Indians and the Government consisted of Africans. Today, Muslim priests and their constituencies no longer want to remember that age because Indians are now in charge of the government. In other words, it was never about religion but race. Once the African PNC was out, power abuse no longer became an obligation to fight against.
One wonders what Allah and God would make of this hypocrisy among both Hindus and Muslims. As the worst forms of power abuse continue in this religious land, maybe hope lies in the resurrection of Christian obligation to fight wrongdoing.

 

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