A call to ignore Jagdeo’s racial rhetoric

Jul 29, 2016 Letters

Dear Editor,

I am an eighteen year old multi-ethnic man who has a deep passion for politics and reviving the true spirit of patriotism in Guyana. I am referring to the form of patriotism that encompasses tolerance, respect and appreciation of each other as Guyanese people alongside the love and devotion we must all have for our country and those in it.
This letter is not just to express how intensely irritated I am about the comments made by the Leader of the Opposition at a gathering in Queens, It must be noted that over the years I have always admired Mr. Jagdeo for many of his qualities, especially those “people skills” he possesses and his way of motivating many, regardless of the frontiers. I would sometimes compare his rhetoric skills to that of Adolf Hitler. Mr. Jagdeo in his own twisted way probably wants what is best for Guyana and like Hitler, he uses “rhetoric” to control the minds of his many followers and he continues to preach hate towards a certain group of people.
At the Queens gathering Mr. Jagdeo, a well-educated and politically experienced gentleman saw it fit to deliver a speech to a majority Indian populated crowd about how they need to take “our country back from these people.” The “these people” he is referring to is the APNU-AFC government, which its President is an Afro-Guyanese. I was quite appalled that a gentleman I would have once described as a “great young leader” would have stooped so low to say that there has been an “assault on Guyanese of Indian origin in Guyana, and there is also an assault on Guyanese who support the PPP.”
I am yet to figure out if the “Granger administration” and its supporters are actually going around assaulting Indian people for their political persuasions. In my little “inexperienced” brain, I am yet to fathom what exactly his intentions were, if not to cause tension between the two races. Let me make one thing clear before I continue, I am not defending the government because I do feel that more needs to be done from their side to address the racial division but they must be commended for the creation of a “Ministry of Social Cohesion” and it is my belief that the issue of race falls under the wings of the aforementioned Ministry. While I do believe it was a good step to acknowledge the need for social cohesion, what exactly has the Ministry been doing to address this issue?
The Honourable Opposition Leader went on to add the following to his colourful speech, he said “it is good to see so many of you out here and that you keep the spirit of our community alive. This spirit is essential here for our people to make progress but it is the same spirit that we need back in Guyana now. A spirit of community to ensure that we defend our people, through these dark times”. I must confess that I chuckled when I heard that part of his speech and while I want to believe that he was referring to “patriotism” as I illustrated before, it would be remiss of me not to notice the “shade” he is throwing.
If the “sprit” he is referring to, is indeed patriotism then I agree with him that as Guyanese we need to be more patriotic. But when he added that there is a need to “defend our people through these dark times”, then I can no longer try to defend him in my own little way of interpreting his speech. The sad reality is, many of the persons present at the event are not quite aware of what is going on back home, and because the stories they are being told are coming from a somewhat “credible source” then many of them will run away with all the wrong ideas about what is happening back home.
The dejected truth of the matter is, many of them haven’t been in Guyana for decades and many of them do not read the “local news” online and even if they did, the media has a way of only zooming in on crime so they will certainly run away with the wrong ideas about this “assault” on PPP supporters.
As I close, I want to assure Guyanese people locally and abroad that there is no assault on one set of people, but there is an assault on the Guyanese people and the perpetrators are people like Mr. Jagdeo who want to see us divided. I want us to understand that now more than ever, we need to stand as one Guyana and as one people because that is what our motto intended. I cannot make Mr. Jagdeo stop what he is doing but I do want Guyanese to understand that being “Guyanese” and being “patriotic” means respecting, tolerating and appreciating our diversity and having 6 ethnic groups does not mean we have to split society against each other, but it means that we have the opportunity to be diverse, even on political frontiers.
To my fellow young people, I urge you all to look beyond what ethnic group we were born into and look towards the Guyana we want to have in thirty years’ time. I think it is about time we move away from making politics synonymous with race and even when we are relating the two; we must also understand that being an Afro-Guyanese doesn’t automatically mean you are a supporter of the APNU-AFC government, and not because someone is Indo-Guyanese means that they are being “Assaulted”.
Dennis A. Glasgow. (Jr)

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

One thought on “A call to ignore Jagdeo’s racial rhetoric”

Surujpaul Rampersaud July 29, 2016 at 12:45 pm

Dennis, thanks for your letter and your willingness to be involved in the issues of the day. While I do not support the issues publicly raised by Mr. Jagdeo, one has to realize that there is no smoke without fire. There is no doubt that in Guyana that many Indo Guyanese are removed from their jobs and replaced by Afro Guyanese. This may be simply political actions and had nothing to do with race. However it feeds into the playbook of the opposition whose base of support for the PPP. The Granger government must prove that it is the government for all and not only its base. So far it it is getting a failing grade in doing so.

Comments are closed.

Latest News