A certain newspaper is playing a dangerous game of incitement

Sep 12, 2017 Letters

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Dear Editor,
There is a crisis of honour and truth facing the Indian intellectual community in Guyana and in the Diaspora. It’s been long recognized that the Guyana Times, using Vishnu Bisram and its five feature writers (Anna Correia, Rhyaan Shah, Lomarsh Roopnarine, Ravi Dev, Brian Younge) weekly and daily use propaganda, lies and racial incitement to brainwash Indians that Africans have never accomplished. Of course, with Bharat Jagdeo using the same strategy at the last elections and the Guyana times being owned by his best friend, one sees the linkage and recognizes this is a political campaign that is both dangerous and ongoing.
What is even more disturbing is that this campaign is now regional and global and is led by Bisram and a few others. In a recent Indo-Caribbean Diaspora News (ICDN) article, Bisram wrote an article entitled “Wrong for Burnham and Idi Amin to expel Indians” in which Bisram stated
“It is noted that in Guyana, another notorious dictator Forbes Burnham, a friend of Idi Amin, indirectly expelled Indians, Chinese, Whites (Portuguese) and others from the country. Burnham must have welcomed Idi Amin’s action to confiscate Indian’s wealth and property. Idi Amin told Indians to swim out of the country. Burnham took similar action against Indians and others in Guyana”
As I read through this particular ICDN publication, it is very clear ICDN is dedicated to one single theme “Africans in the Caribbean are persecuting Indians in the Caribbean because they are jealous of Indian wealth and achievements.” The Face book page of ICDN crosses the line of racial entrepreneurship similar to what led to the crisis in Rwanda.
In Guyana, this dishonesty has reached new heights over the last 3 months in preparation of the Land COI. On August 6, 2017, Bisram began with the strategy of subtracting from African achievement. Thus he wrote in the Guyana Times “ The Afro-nationalist Eric Phillips claims: “History has recorded that African Guyanese had driven back the sea and had cleared, drained and reclaimed 15,000 square miles of forest and swamps, equivalent to 9,000,000 acres of land. Meaning, all the plantations now turned villages and cities were built by unpaid African labour. These figures do not appear on any documented history” So according to Bisram , this is a lie.
Well Mr. Bisram, kindly read the Venn Commission. Of course Bisram knows the Venn Commission’s Report but his singular goal is to distort any African achievement to deny Africans justice such as reparations. In August in the Guyana Times, he wrote that it was the Colonists who encouraged Africans to engage in the Village Movement.
So again, according to Bisram, no credit must be given to Africans for the “greatest entrepreneurial endeavor in any post slavery society which happened only in British Guiana”. It was a British initiative according to Bisram because Africans couldn’t do anything on their own.
On August 6, 2017 in the Guyana Times, Bisram wrote “As the Africans did, the Indians had to build the coastal plantations to prepare them for cultivation of sugar cane. So they had to move more than 300,000,000 tons of earth by hands (as the Africans did) without machinery. So Indians are superior to Africans even if the numbers are made up (Bisram, where is your source?)
A month later, on September 10, 2017, as if the first lie of 300 million tons was not enough, Bisram wrote in the Guyana Times “Indians would have moved 500 million tons of earth. And logically they would be entitled to five times 15,000 (since they developed five times as many acres as the slaves) or 75,000 square miles.
Bisram has written letter in the Guyana Times on August 6, 8, 10, 12 and many more times in the last 2 weeks. His main focus is to poison the minds of ordinary Indians and to say to them “black man shouldn’t get no land”. To cap of his assault on Africans in Guyana, on July 28,2017 in the Guyana Times, Bisram wrote “Descendants of slaves are seeking reparations (compensation) for the inhumane treatment meted out to their ancestors. Indians, Amerindians, Chinese and Portuguese also suffered inhumane conditions under indentured labour; their descendants are also entitled to reparations.
He repositions the call for reparations by Africans as Africans calling for land as payment for “land development, which incidentally Bisram claims Indians moved 500 million tons to develop lands. For his edification, although he knows, let me share this truth. Reparations are internationally recognized as justice for crimes against humanity. According to the International Court of Justice, crimes against humanity are (a) Murder (b) Extermination (c) Enslavement;(d) Deportation or forcible transfer of population(e) Imprisonment or other severe deprivation of physical liberty in violation of fundamental rules of international law; (f) Torture (g) Rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization, or any other form of sexual violence of comparable gravity(h) Persecution against any identifiable group or collectivity on political, racial, national, ethnic, cultural, religious, gender as defined in paragraph 3 of Article 7 of the Rome Statute., or other grounds that are universally recognized as impermissible under international law, in connection with any act referred to in this paragraph or any crime within the jurisdiction of the Court (i) Enforced disappearance of persons (j) The crime of apartheid (k) Other inhumane acts of a similar character intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health.
Which crimes against humanity Indians, Portuguese , Chinese or Amerindians suffered in Guyana. Does one deny 475,000 Africans died to build Guyana?
Or will Bisram claim 900,000 Indians died to build Guyana? Mr. Bisram, none of your trips and presentations to GOPIO in Mauritius or India will change the truth. You cannot change facts nor create your own personal facts.
These Indians mentioned above should be ashamed but they lack honour or dignity or truthfulness and add to the deceit of the Guyana Times whose editors including Ravi Dev know the truth. I have refused to respond to the 12 letters from July to September 2017 of Guyana Times’ onslaught against African achievements and African dignity.
Eric Phillips

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