Disadvantaged groups must be given equal opportunity

Dec 10, 2016 Letters

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Dear Editor,
When school-leavers are finished with high school, (after secondary school where the program concludes.), the youths are linked, if interested, to an incubator facility which also has production area/s, a library and lecture area. Ever so often successful business personnel would visit these incubator facilities, sit with them and offer advice on what ever might be bothering them business wise.
Usually these meetings are informal since both sides would know each other from the days of school attachment. I would advise that some effort be made to have a small number of Guyanese study this program. I know that in the late 1980s Grenada had a well-organized Junior Achievers program. So why are approaches like these not being tried or even talked about in Guyana?
Talking about what can best be done to help any specific racial and/or ethnic group in Guyana to overcome a perceived weakness is taboo. Race and politics have made this so. In the case of Blacks; especially our politicians and intellectuals; are unwilling to speak openly or take action necessary for bringing about meaningful black involvement in business.
This unwillingness is situated in two concerns (a) A definition of racial pride which make them feel publicizing this perceived short coming of the black man will reinforce beliefs in some quarters of his innate inabilities. (b) The PNC government’s fear that other races would have seen any special attention to what afflicts blacks as a show of it favoring its own and thus a need for concern. Proof of my contention can be seen in Mr. Roshan Khan’s offering in the Chronicle of 23rd November 2016. Mr. Khan, commenting on the new African Business Chamber is quoted as saying this “… and I further believe that this African chamber will cause paranoia among the other races …” Also Dr. Eric Phillips comments in the Chronicle edition of 19th November 2016 at the launching of the African Business Chamber (ABC). He said that the ABC is a “body which politicians and business people seem afraid to be associated with.” Dr. Phillips was being politically correct, I would bet what he really meant was black politicians were afraid.
On the other hand, East Indian politicians and intellectuals did/do not want to speak openly of the plague of suicide in their community. This was so because until recently the PPP had been in power for over two decades and during that period it was considered important to give the impression that all was well and that there was no dissatisfaction in East Indian communities. So, since suicide is seen as an act undertaken by the discontented, for the PPP claims of rising suicide rates among East Indians had to be denied.
Discontent for them (PPP) was located in the African community and was an attempt to discredit and embarrass the ‘successful’ PPP government. In my letter of 11th February 2013 published in the Kaieteur News I wrote of my friend on the Corentyne who related to me being summoned to the office of a very senior PPP operative and warned to stop making public statements about the high number of suicides on the Corentyne.
Also in that same letter I quoted the then Minister of Health Dr. Ramsammy as saying that his “ministry does not have any evidence which indicates an increase in suicide deaths.” While Dr. Prem Misir, the spokesman for the PPP government at the time, seemed to have missed the script and declared “Guyana is teeming with suicides; the rate of suicide is up and up.” Attention to the largely East Indian problem of suicide and the black man’s need of special attention to encourage his involvement in business make both the African and East Indian politicians uncomfortable.
Mr. Editor, interestingly after my article of 23rd April 1992 was published I was contacted by the government of one of the smaller states in CARICOM. That government sought and did engage me in discussions on my suggestions because, as its representative indicated, the government wanted to have my article discussed in their parliament. To this day no government in Guyana has ever responded to that article, not even with a criticism.
You see, the country over which the government that contacted me holds authority, does not have a race problem, thus its behavior is not curtailed by such considerations. Mr. Editor, one should not be reluctant to pursue programs that seek to offer groups that have historically been discriminated against, an equal opportunity at the starting line. Indeed a number of countries which we claim to respect and love have found the need to initiate such programs.
Claudius Prince

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