My position is in sync with international prerequisites for good governance and social justice

May 29, 2012 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
Response is made to Ravi Dev’s Sunday articles of 13/5/2012 and 20/5/2012. If Dev thinks a “purveyor of hate” is one who detests and publicly crusades against the transgression of rights, violations of laws; and government’s refusal to account to the people and engage in good governance to ensure peaceful co-existence and equitable development amongst the people, then I, Lincoln Lewis, stand guilty as charged.
Among the first thing Dev did on his introduction to the political scene was to use the media to tell this nation if it were not for Indians, Guyana would have reverted to mangroves. In 1998 he writes, “In addition to the nurtured tradition of revolt, African socialisation patterns pre-dispose them into aggressive habits and frustrating situations elicit aggressive responses, even against authority figures, i.e. there is a normative support for violence in the African community.”
This is the disrespect and crassness he propagates under the guise of being a politician and intellectual. In other countries he’d be called upon to provide the evidence or said statements condemned for their bigotry. Unfortunately this depraved thinking finds acceptance in a multicultural society because of who says it and against whom, which enables a mindset to support social injustice, inequality and imbalance.
We are witnessing instances where some are allowed to name their reality/perception without having to prove or justify same; and given free rein to vilify another. For instance, the incident of January 12, 1998, GIFT and Dev called it a Civil Disorder. On this date it is said 303 Indians were attacked. Compare this to Afghanistan’s civil disorder where millions are attacked and lives are lost.
On January 26, 2008, 11 persons in Lusignan were murdered and this is called a massacre. Compare this to the 1978 Jim Jones incident where 909 persons died in what is called a massacre. However, when hundreds of African men are killed extra judicially by government-supported phantom squads and the government ignores local and international calls for an enquiry, along with tens of thousands of Africans affected daily by the PPP’s policies that attack their economic wellbeing, which I call economic genocide, Dev sees this as “demean[ing] the horrors of real victims of genocide.” This proclaimed Indian rights activist is taking a lot for granted!
Let me say, his right to articulate the reality/perception of the group he claims to represent does not give him the right to say how I, or anyone, should name/articulate reality/perception. Even moreso when such naming/articulation is consistent with universal definition and applicable to the situation so named. Those who seek to deny others the right to so name are themselves enablers/supporters of oppression.
Dev’s use of the populations of Rwanda, Congo and Germany as determinant for the African-Guyanese to name the economic attacks they confront speaks to his contempt for the African community. Note, he does not apply similar standard to name the Indian reality/perception. Of all persons he ought to know an offence is an offence and it becomes one based on existing rules/principles/laws. And this universal fact must not only be for Indians; it must equally apply for Africans and other groups.
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide says genocide can be committed “in time of peace or in time of war.” Article 2 of this Convention expressly states, “genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such: (a) Killing members of the group; (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
The PPP is culpable under a, b and c. The PPP knows this too, as such it does not want the Guyana Bauxite and General Workers Union (GB&GWU) January 2010 complaint before the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) to be heard for the consequences it would bear for their actions.
The economic attacks in Linden and the bauxite communities are public knowledge. The attacks on the Georgetown and New Amsterdam town councils are known. The installation of IMC in the NDCs the PPP did not win is another factor. The denial of the right to collective bargaining and freedom of association for some workers are equally known.
Many can testify to the denial of their pensions and the right to work. Under oath in a Court of Law the Jagdeo’s libel case records for the nation’s posterity what sane minds already know. Aubrey Norton’s table on the 2012 Budget, reproduced below, shows November 2011 has not changed the PPP’s discriminatory agenda (KN May 11, 2012-“The Budget reveals a case of discrimination”).

Regions	Controlled Party	Population	Capital Expenditure
1	(PPP)	24,275	$209.492m
2	(PPP)	49,253	$345.950m
3	(PPP)	103,061	$280.500m
4	(APNU)	310,320	$194.500m
5	(PPP)	52,428	$267.100m
6	(PPP)	123,695	$361.700m
7	(APNU)	17,597	$126.000m
8	(AFC/APNU)	10,095	$142.263m
9	(PPP)	19,387	$263.600m
10	(APNU)	41,112	$221.825m

(Population figures from Statistical Bureau)

Yet with this record, Dev has the effrontery to write that exposures polarise the society, create chaos and affect international trade. Let him take that message to the PPP!
Democracy in today’s global society is driven by social justice and governments that account to the people, thus the citations and rejections the PPP gets are of its own making. A country with a narco economy, rampant crime, corruption and a government that violates its laws, international conventions and universal declarations and targets groups to discriminate against, speaks to a dysfunctional society and poses a threat to societies everywhere. Dev needs to pay attention to the criteria governments are demanding to do business with Guyana. The world is aware of the tyranny of the majority, masked as democracy, and efforts are being made to stamp it out.
Dev is advised my position is in sync with international prerequisites for good governance and social justice. In this environment he will not get away with inebriating himself by demonising and discriminating against Africans. All are created equal and under the law all are so protected, whether he likes it or not; because it is not a choice he faces, it is a requirement he must respect! And as his right to freedom of expression is respected then others must equally enjoy said right, including Freddie Kissoon, whom he also targets in the referenced articles.
Where Dev sees outlet to manufacture and sustain fears and bigotry, as against holding all accountable under the constitution, laws, conventions and declarations; others see opportunity to appeal to humankind’s decency to stand up for what is just and fair and to condemn wrongdoing, irrespective of who commits them.
Lincoln Lewis

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