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There is more than meets the eye

Mar 09, 2013 Editorial

From recent utterances by the Minister of Home Affairs and the government it would seem that there is a concerted effort by the political opposition and the criminal elements to direct their attention exclusively to the Chinese population in Guyana.
The Ministry of Home Affairs issued the first such statement. But even before Clement Rohee’s Ministry made such a statement there were the comments by Chinese Ambassador to Guyana, Zhang Limin. Speaking at the function at which the Chinese Government announced that it was gifting 28,145 laptop computers to Guyana’s One Laptop per Family programme, the Ambassador spoke of what he saw as attacks on the Chinese.
Then there was the case of the Muslim girl who claimed that she was beaten by the Chinese proprietrix in a software store. This too sparked another protest. Reporters visited some Chinese owned and operated business places and found that all was not well. There were no receipts in the event that the buyer wanted to return the goods.
This made headlines and all of a sudden there seemed to be unnecessary focus on the Chinese. Ambassador Zhang spoke of the relationship Guyana shares with China and suggested that since the two countries enjoy a friendly relationship perhaps the focus on the Chinese could be reduced.
The Chinese are the largest investors in Guyana; they are the largest donors of grants to Guyana. In short they are the country’s cash cow. Guyana does not want to see its cash cow hightail it out of Guyana.  The result is the attack by the government on the critics of Chinese wrongs in Guyana.
There is nothing wrong with a government trying to protect any ethnic group that appears to be unfavorably targeted but it is another to suggest that there is this unfavorable targeting when there is no evidence.
Cabinet has asked the police to gather statistics on the attacks against Chinese since there seems to be in the eyes of the government, an escalation of robbery attacks on Chinese-operated business places.
What we do know is that every ethnic group in Guyana has been a victim of a criminal attack. Recently, the Brazilians were the prime targets of even rogue elements in the Guyana Police Force. The government said nothing. There was no claim of racism. Surely the Chinese are being viewed in a different light.
The statistics would show that the Chinese are no more victims than any other ethnic group in Guyana. They may be the special interest group for the government. It has not escaped our notice that the government has been rushing to the defense of the Chinese at every turn, even to the point of telling the world that Guyana does not have skilled people to undertake constructions and in the process, justifying an all Chinese labour force.
Fortunately, the message has been sent and there is unlikely to be any repetition of such a situation in Guyana. But one is left to wonder whether the Chinese are now being prepared for pride of place in Guyana.
But supporting the Chinese for whatever reason is not the only issue. One must now wonder whether the government would hold a similar view if other nationalities are involved if those nationalities do not make lots of money available to Guyana.
Over the last six months the Brazilians have been bearing the bulk of hinterland criminal activity. Just two days ago a Brazilian woman was shot in the heart of the city in broad daylight. She was with her husband and had just walked out of her business place. We have not heard anything about ethnic profiling as we heard when the government rushed to protect the Chinese.
That same day gunmen targeted a Brazilian crew in the hinterland and not being satisfied with robbing the crew, shot and killed one of the Brazilians. We have had a recent case of soldiers targeting Brazilians. In fact, the Home Affairs Ministry was regaled with reports of people fleecing the Brazilians, even policemen. Where is the racism that Presidential Adviser Gail Teixeira spoke about? And where is the ethnic attack that Dr. Roger Luncheon speaks about.  Surely there is ‘more in the mortar than the pestle’.

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