What racial voting and racism?

Jun 08, 2010 Letters

Dear Editor,
Racism seems to be an echo which keeps reverberating in the region, Guyana in particular, when there is a general election pending and this stems from the extent of the Indian vote.
I made this observation after viewing the statements made by the various political commentators on the recent elections in Trinidad and Tobago.
The case in point saw the toppling of the PNM when the focus of their discussion took a sudden swing from the issues that led to Manning’s failure at the polls and the searchlight turned in full beam on the winner Kamla Persad-Bissesar.
Statements such as her ethnicity, which is Indian, her religion a devout Hindu and of her receiving support from the Indians who form a sizeable portion of the population.
This racial reporting of the events has me baffled in that these individuals who claim to speak out against racial profiling are the very proponents of the trade.
What is so significant of the Prime Minister’s religion or even more revealing what is racial about the voting of Indians, aren’t they Trinidadians? Why selectively separate them from the rest of the voting population?
Why be partisan when Indians vote? Or for whom should they vote? When Blacks vote for the so-called “Black” party this is not considered racial voting at all so why should the Indian vote be singled out as racial.
If one should give their racial argument any credence then the PNM should not have been the dominant party for so many years judging from the fact that the Indians only vote for the so-called Indian party and would not do so for a Black party or, President Obama should not be there because whites would not vote for a Black Man.
Guyana is no different, as election draws near there is a flurry of articles in the press purporting to racial voting.
Again, their thesis lack credibility when we see 28 years of PNC rule which is a predominantly Black party as against the PPP which has a mere 18 years in office.
Or was there something else at work which meant that the minority Black party was indeed practising racism by rigging.
The point I am making is racism or racial voting is a misnomer, people vote for a group of individuals or party who they believe has their best interest at heart, for peace and development as was the case in Trinidad and will be the same in Guyana, and not the race nonsense they would have us believe.
Neil Adams

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