Federalism resolves Africans’ demands for equality

Dec 13, 2012 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
“Race is a compelling psychological and emotional aspect of our social and political decision-making in Guyana” Mr. M Maxwell has again reminded us. Understandably his tepid immersion into federalism requires clarifications.
In a post to the SN of 11-21-12 titled “Guyana needs an Obama-type leader” and in the SN the next day titled “federalism is an invitation to disaster” he however seems alternatingly exhilarated and then later shrill in his responses.
Accepting that the federalist remedy is definitely more salubrious, then, any continuation of Guyana’s malady can only witness untrammeled Amerindian deculturalisation, predatory extermination of Indian existence and culture and more violence from gridlock of black hopes. This, of course, cannot be acceptable.
Consider now, his whimsical touting of a race-based formula due to Americans celebrating “Barack Obama is of mixed race and President of a country with deep racial divisions. – (And) he is viewed as black by the majority of Americans”.
With Mr. Maxwell so obviously pleased, he recommends the same solution for Guyana. Would it conclusively emancipate our political fixations?  It is after all only a temporary solution just as shared governance moves the battle from the streets to the yards.  Shouldn’t Guyanese by now have been all aglow with President Donald Ramotar’s originating from Essequibo and even more reassured how much more naturally Guyanese he is “mixed” with Amerindian, African, Portuguese and Indian ancestry?
Consider the injustice imposed on the “mixed” Home Affairs Mr. Clement Rohee, terminating his constitutional rights to freedom of speech in of all places Parliament, is still to be reversed.  Get the picture?
What binds Guyanese together?  The undeniable fact is nearly half of the population does not know anything substantial of the completely unique and different other. Not so in America.  Few of Guyana’s political parties in our entire history have crafted effective nationwide education policies to address Amerindian, Portuguese, Chinese and Indian history, religion and culture for inclusion in our schools’ curriculum. But the British have.
Consequently can anyone explain why Indian survival must be negotiable and always threatened, including serving as targets for any “mixed” solution to Guyana’s problems?
Even by Mr. Maxwell’s proposal, President Ramotar should be the promised political messiah.  But maybe that truly Guyanese President is overqualified – over “mixed” for the job.
Much has occurred since the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492 bringing European disease, guns and ‘civilizing’ Christianity resulting in the savage extinction of the native Aztec, Mayan, Incan, Arawak and Carib cultures, whose archaeological ruins outshine many.  The conquered had no defence or effective responses to their enemies.
Similarly neither Amerindians nor Indians can be expected to now participate, acquiesce or condone their cultural extermination. Maxwell’s reach for a made- in-America panacea for Guyana’s problems some 236 years in the making after their independence is obvious. It is a novelty and it seems to work.
But it is also foolish to ignore that Africans were enslaved by whites whereas Indians in Guyana or the entire Caribbean have absolutely no matching enslavement history or guilt. On the contrary, Indians have always been historical victims of targeted African dissatisfaction.   This is not to imply that Africans were not attacked by Indians in retaliation and sickening brutality. But omissions can only render Mr. Maxwell’s American misappropriation totally incongruent.
Mr. Maxwell may be correct in lamenting that ‘“the greatest impediment to the emergence of an Obama figure is our political parties and system. A man like Obama would not make it under the Jagdeoites, or under the PNC and APNU”. Obviously he knows the PNC very well. But he cannot debunk the reality that it was President Bharrat Jagdeo who actually sponsored President Ramotar.
Did anyone doubt Dr Cheddi Jagan’s consistency, abilities or sincerity with the PPP’s exemplary offer for Dr Roger Luncheon – no Uncle Tom – to be the compromise PPP Presidential candidate before the 1992 elections; the 1970s PPP‘s advancing of Mr. Ashton Chase as Guyana’s first ceremonial President and Dr Jagan’s controversial 1960s elevation of Mr. Brindley Benn bypassing the popular Mr. Balram Singh Rai as the PPP chairman?
All questions which Mr. Maxwell raised about federalism are valid but not insurmountable. Debating about Guyana politics over the last 60 years can only be instructive to facilitate avoidance and comprehensive enhancement in the conclusive changeover to federation.
Guyanese Indians and Africans will always have a lot more in common with each other living in the same federated country. But right now their quest for political power has spun Guyana out of control.
Africans’ rising demands to shape their own separate destiny cannot be ignored and can only find ultimate fulfillment in federation.
As Maya Angelou advised “let’s tell the truth to people. When people ask, ‘How are you?’ have the nerve sometimes to answer truthfully.”  Check out her poem “still I rise”.
Sultan Mohamed

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