From the Diaspora…GUYANESE ARE NOT AS DIVIDED AS POLITICIANS WOULD LIKE US TO BELIEVE

Mar 15, 2015 News

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By Ralph Seeram
It’s a ritual, every afternoon when I picked up my grandson from his nursery school; he has to give each of his friends a body hug, boys and girls before leaving. His friends are from all races and nationalities— Chinese, Hispanics, White, Afro American and so forth.
There was the innocence of five-year-olds, so fond of each other, not an iota of racialism in their young minds.
As these young ones can prove, no one was born a racialist; racialism is taught, by parents or immediate family members, by environment, culture and to a lesser extent shaped by politics. We humans are never satisfied to accept that we are all equals, no; we have to find a way to divide ourselves, to distinguish who are more superior to the other.
So if we are all from one race, we divide ourselves either by religion, tribes, class, castes, political affiliation and nationalities.
So the question becomes at what point our views or conscientiousness of race or racialism instincts developed, especially in Guyana. Of course this depends on many factors. For me I prefer to look at it from my experience and observation.
A few years ago I visited some relatives in Crabwood Creek on the Corentyne. CWC as many of you may or may not know is virtually at the end of the Corentyne Highway and end of the coastal highway on the East end of Guyana.
Now CWC is a predominantly Indo Guyanese village. I can’t recall seeing an Afro Guyanese resident in CWC. During my staying I could not help observing the teenagers playing a lot of Reggae and Soca music, more so than Indian music.
For the young today this may not have any significance, but I have been visiting the Corentyne and CWC before I left Guyana, and there was a time, when all the music played were Indian music. Any other music was considered “black people music”.
The young generation has crossed that cultural barrier through music. Speaking of music, look at those big music shows whether at the National Stadium or clubs, they are multi cultural multi ethnic affairs. Musically, the young generation has moved out of their parent music environment, to a more integrated society.
Part of the problem—environment. You will observe that years ago, pre-1964 race riots, our villages were not as segregated as they were after the riots. You suddenly had “black people village’ or Indian or coolie village.
The period set our race relations way back, it took quite a few generations to where there is more integration of races in various villages than there ever was.
Places like New Amsterdam where I grew up, were far more integrated, there never was a race problem even in the dark days of the 1964 race riots. As I said environment could contribute to the formation of racial prejudices.
During the race riots, two brothers relocated in our area, Smythfield, New Amsterdam, and the first thing they wanted to do was incite violence against Afro Guyanese in the area. We formed a “posse” both Indo and Afro Guyanese and confronted them with the ultimatum if they try to incite violence they will be ‘run’ out the area.
They could not understand that we were brought up with no racial intolerance. That is where the problem lies, quite a few parents have not brought up their kids to embrace other races, and they passed their prejudices to their children. Thankfully the majority of the young generation in Guyana has transcended that barrier.
There is more assimilation in the society today than politicians would care to admit. Why because it suits their political ambitions, and I am talking about both major parties. Recently with the election season on, we are hearing how the PPP appealed to its Indian base, but whether some want to accept or not, the PNC-led APNU is not different, not better, they make the same kind of appeal.
Last weekend I went to a concert of one of Guyana’s brightest upcoming music stars, Romeo Mystic, one of the best reggae singers I have heard, but his popularity stems from his hit song “Coolie Bai”. (Will have more to say about this artiste in another column).
The singer said in so many ways expressed that he is proud to be a Coolie Bai. Obviously the singer does not feel that the term in today’s context is not in anyway derogatory. Neither do I. Personally I never view it as any other way but identifying me as an Indian. It would be foolish to really think the word is used today in its literal sense and meaning.
I bring this up because much is being made of former President Bharrat Jagdeo’s use of the word ‘coolie”. Some in the opposition deemed it race baiting, but had no problem with Moses Nagamootoo use of the work “Black man’ which in my view was race baiting for Indian votes.
If there is any politician whose political survival is based on race in the coming election, it is Moses Nagamootoo.
The fact of the matter is both the PNC-led APNU and the PPP have always been engaged in race politics, both of their strengths lay in race voting, and don’t let them fool you. I will have more to say about Jagdeo campaigning for the PPP later. Suffice to say, he is the PPP prescription for losing the election.
I can’t close this column without mentioning the cowardly murder of political activist Courtney Crum-Ewing. To say his executioners are cowards is to put it mildly. Their actions go beyond murder. It strikes at the heart of democracy—dissent, free speech, the right to express political views in public.
The big question is who could be behind this dastardly crime. Rhetoric from the opposition and their supporters on social media has all but convicted the PPP. In fact, the murder of Crum-Ewing has given the opposition ammunition. You have to ask yourself who has more to gain politically from the execution of this man.
Certainly not the PPP, as we can see the flack they are taking politically over this murder. His death is clearly not in the best interest of the PPP.
Given the inflammatory nature of some comments on social media, a writer for this newspaper and from the opposition itself as to who his actual killers are, one would have thought that they would have already forwarded their information to the police to bring the culprits to swift justice.
The truth is no one at this point knows who the “intellectual authors” are of this execution. It is all speculation, naturally like all Guyanese I would like to see the perpetrators brought to justice. The last thing we need is for his death to be used as a “political football” for politicians, especially during this election season, the last thing we need, is to use his death to raise racial tension. The man deserves better than that. He deserves justice, regardless of where the “chips fall”.
Ralph Seeram can be reached at email; [email protected] and on Facebook

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