The age- old bygone days of race voting should be knocked dead

Sep 02, 2011 Letters

Dear Editor,
During the launching of the APNU party campaign in Linden Dr.Rupert Roopnaraine made mention of an earlier movement for national unity (1953) but said that this APNU formation is one with a difference, in that it remains open to one and all – excluding none.
And in my mind I honestly think that the time has come for a different season; a different kind of political arrangement; one that can bring about a more meaningful balance in the way we do things; one that can assuage the tension and suspicion of racism; one that will address the fear and mistrust and take us towards a new horizon.
It is too much of a burden for a nation to keep trudging along the path of a past that has not been gracious to them and still swings like a pendulum back and forth feeding on old wounds.
It is obvious that the race divide remains a shackle that prevents us from genuinely reaching across, thus we remain ‘prisoners of our own devices’. In no way will we be able to realise a common destiny if our actions and ‘carryings on’ do not conform to the things we say.
Our binary political movement that revolves on an ethnic turret and which
emerged with two dominant personalities: Cheddi Jagan/PPP and Forbes Burnham/PNC and from which since our two major races have been rallying around, have outlived their time with their fair share of ups and downs along with some commendable achievements.
Say what you will, I think that they both were remarkable personalities who sprang from among us, had a fine run, did their tasks and departed, and that is a period gone and not coming back; their works indelibly imprinted will remain in our history books; our political landscape and for a time in the hearts of those who have seen and heard them.
And I honestly think that they both from where they are would love to see their dream, the struggle they have left, blossom into a united people.
We are indeed a people of different physical makeup, skin tone, hair, facial features, and behaviour, whose ancestors have come from different parts of the earth, whose cultures were different and which we cannot wish away and therefore have to recognise as part of our ‘Guyaneseness’. Inborn ethnic patterns that none of us can deny, since we cannot zip ourselves out of our skin, and this is the context of our six peoples.
It follows therefore that we need to respect each other for what we are, respect each unique quality and if needs be copy the good values each possesses; be genuine and less contemptuous and arrogant, and treat our physical differences as secondary to that which principally matters: that we are all members of the human family; one people, one nation.
I want to make the point that though the PNC/PPP may have good intentions, once there is even remotely perceived racism it creates a serious problem. The age-old bygone days of race voting should be knocked dead, it does no good to the spirit of nation building in a plural/multiracial society, this is why the old order should be jettisoned and be replaced with a new dispensation, and here is where I see the role for APNU in the present scheme of things. As the embodiment of this new order for genuine unity.
Now, one disturbing aspect in this process at this point in time is the sinister way in which Walter Rodney our dear brother who was in the forefront for racial unity and lost his life in the process is being made a mockery of. His assassination should not be bandied around and held up as a banner, a reminder of a dark period merely to stagnate and keep us apart, sad as it was, but how does resurrecting this dreadful act come elections time as a reminder to what took place three decades ago help us to forge true racial/national unity? How does revenge, reprisal, and bitterness help to mend old wounds? How does this assist in nation building?
To what purpose is this kind of hypocritical nefarious campaign when the overwhelming majority of followers of the late Rodney and Guyana at large, long for the death of racism? If we have learned anything over the last 40 years it should be that ‘life goes not backwards or tarries with yesterday sorrow’ Thus we should make the effort to rise as a glorious people or choose to remain “prisoners of our own devices”, consumed by our primitive, foolish and disgusting behaviour. How much better do we expect to be if we remain padlocked in old worn habits?
Frank Fyffe

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The age- old bygone days of race voting should be knocked dead

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