I cannot support revengeful politics

Aug 06, 2015 Letters

Dear Editor,
It is most unfortunate that Abel Seetaram in a response to my letter (KN Aug 5) supports and endorses the politics of ethnic and political revenge and ethnic and political cleansing. That kind of politics belongs to a bygone era and I have opposed it in the past and will do so now.
We have to be forward thinking and have a government of inclusivity. I come from a different cultural background, family discipline, and educational training than Seetaram, and not surprisingly we hold different positions on politics and economics of ethnicity.
I cannot support a politics and an employment code that targets people on account of race and party politics. Unlike him, I cannot bring myself to support revengeful politics. I essentially support a Gandhian, Jaganite philosophy of working together to build a nation, and not taking bread away from a family.
Seetaram suggests that I ask the PPP about how many (Africans) it removed from office and how many PPP supporters it hired who were not qualified. I do not need to ask the PPP for figures. If Seetaram has evidence of ethnic discrimination (figures), then it is his responsibility to present the number to the public.
As best as I know, there was no witch-hunting under the PPP administration; at least there was hardly any data published in the free independent media after 1992. There was no politics of vengeance from Jagan who was severely criticized by party supporters for not cleansing the Augean stables. PPP supporters suffered for jobs when their party was in office, not to mention they were also victimized under the dictatorship. Supporters of the PNC were not on the breadlines under PPP tenure.
Reports indicated that the PPP inherited a bureaucracy of 90% Africans/Mixed and it declined slightly when the PPP was removed from office in May 2015 – that can hardly be considered racial discrimination from a sociological perspective. If Seetaram has significantly different figures, he must present them to the reading public.
And even if the PPP government had replaced PNC supporters with PPP supporters, it is not justification for the coalition to now remove PPP supporters from their jobs and replace them with PNC supporters.
When will this cycle of political and ethnic victimization end?
Seetaram missed the central point of my missive. In a small nation like ours, we cannot afford revengeful politics. Has Seetaram not learned anything from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rwanda, Burundi, Iraq, Syria, Libya, etc.?
We cannot build a nation by excluding half of the population on account of their ethnicity and political affiliation.
We need all hands on deck on a shaky ship that can sink at any time. We all must work together to lift the boat if we do love and care for our nation.
What Seetaram is saying is he loves himself and his AFC party and to hell with the rest of the nation. That is not the Guyana that interests me.
Vishnu Bisram

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News