Achilles’ heel of the Gorgons

Jul 20, 2011 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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The creation of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) by the PPP hierarchy remains one of the most successful attempts at realpolitik in this country. Its efficacy, until a High Court judge boldly and bravely shut it down (not the Secretariat but the closing off of the manipulators) is vivid testimony of the prolonged weakness of the combined opposition, independent stakeholders and the media community
From its inception, the ERC’s mission was to curtail discussion of the race problematic in this country. It served the interests of the PPP because polemics on African marginalization and the practice of racial discrimination by the ruling party were the Achilles’ heel of the little dictators.
They wanted to avoid debate of this topic and were inflexible about it. The PPP felt that ventilation of the race problematic was politically too risky a process in Guyana, because it stands as the only powerful issue that could cause social galvanization.
The ERC role was to oversee the inquisition. And it had done it brutally until the High Court intervened. Since then, Ramesh Dookhoo, Chairman of the Private Sector Commission, who unapologetically and publicly endorsed the continued status of Edghill as Chairman, has gone silent.
Dookhoo may be under watch from Banks DIH, his employer, after an advocacy in some sections of the blogsphere to boycott Banks DIH over Dookhoo’s support for the ERC and his approval of the brutal removal of the Stabroek Square vendors.
Chairman Edghill was initially the appointee of the Guyana Council of Churches (GCC) but when that body failed to reappoint him, the Gorgons went to work. The Greek sea-monsters created the Inter-Religious Organization and railroaded the ERC into accepting him from that non-existent entity.
Herein lies the insoluble dilemma between the Gorgons and the combined parliamentary opposition. Why have Edghill from a religious organization when the major Christian denominations are inside the GCC?
The Gorgons couldn’t take a chance on Edghill’s removal, but more than this. If the opposition had accepted Edghill, the PPP wanted him to be the Chairman. Juan Edghill was the PPP’s key in the drive to extirpate a climate of intellectual and political discussion of racial discrimination against African Guyanese.
Edghill went about his business with realpolitik energy. The eight-member ERC for five years operated with two Commissioners – Edghill and John Willems. The TUC representative, Andrew Garnett, resigned after the constitutional status of the ERC ended. The TUC did not assign another commissioner and the alternative, Mr. Carvil Duncan, stood in place.  TUC has since refused to name a replacement for Garnett.
From the date of Garnett’s replacement, the ERC has been a three-man show. This has been the state of affairs in an important, constitutional body like the ERC. The ERC under this gang of three has worked zealously to curtail any analysis or statement that contains elements of racial discrimination against African Guyanese.
The ERC was like a vulture before the High Court stepped in. Once a sentiment was echoed that Africans were being downsized by the regime, the gang of three appeared on your doorstep. The masquerade had illustrations of administrative masturbation.
When a complaint was made against the Stabroek News by the PPP-founded Indian Arrival Committee (IAC) even though the IAC did not follow up on its complaints and didn’t maintain communication with the ERC, the ERC still investigated the issue and actually issued a public statement on its findings.
There were two other episodes where the ERC held official inquiries even though the virtual complaints had abandoned their projects. The ERC was simply doing its political work for the PPP – create an ambience whereby discussion of race bias on the part of the PPP Government will appear to be confronted by the ERC, and people will be scared to talk on the topic.
African marginalization (I prefer the word “discrimination” because it is in the policy framework of discrimination that the African Guyanese economy is targeted and dissolved) is a social malady that the PPP Government is afraid to have debated and argued.
In this an election year, this Achilles’ heel becomes a monstrous nightmare.
The nightmare is alive and haunting Freedom House because the High Court has extinguished Edghill’s pursuits.  Even if the injunction against these so-called Commissioners is discharged, the Guyanese society has to continue its condemnation of African marginalization.
There is a High Court injunction restraining me from repeating the contents of a previous column titled “King Kong sent his goons to break up the conference” but I will continue to write about the plight of African Guyanese.

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