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A remigrant confronts Guyana’s racial divide
DEAR EDITOR,
I was recently reading a letter in the Guyana Chronicle by a young successful Doctor describing the difficulties of his experience under the then PPP government and reflected on my recent experience under the APNU +AFC government and couldn’t help but draw similarities.
Don’t get me wrong, I have also experienced a touch of “confusion” at a PPP event where upon seeing me, the head of the party said, “We really need to open our party to more Afro Guyanese”. Immediately, senior members of the party came over to welcome me, but I was confused as to the need for the remark.
There I was standing with the descendant of an Indentured Immigrant and the descendant of one of the party’s initial leaders yet I was made to feel like an outsider. It was upsetting at the time.
However, this pales in comparison with the reception that I have been given by the current government in my attempts to help provide my services to my Dear Beautiful Guyana.
As a recent remigrant, I have spent the better part of my career developing industry overseas and gaining experience in key industries such as beverage, alcohol and bauxite-based products that would be to the benefit of Guyana. Yet the reception from government agencies has been lukewarm at best.
They have dismissed my qualifications, which I have garnered from some of the top institutions in the world coupled with experience from MNCs in the Fortune 200 list of companies. The nepotism and party bias appears to be evident in the decision-making process within the government infrastructure.
It is quite disappointing, especially considering that I fondly remember meeting the late President Burnham while in primary school. I remember him coming by our home not too long after I had placed within the top 10 at Common Entrance.
His daughter was also part of the recruitment team for the business school, which I attended. Hence, I felt quite unbiased as it related to party affiliation.
So after reading the young Doctor’s remarks and account of his experience, I am left with the impression that the hate between the two major parties has left such a division between races that it now becomes difficult for them to make unbiased fact-based decisions for the benefit of the country.
This leaves the 26% of us who are either from a mixed background, European, Chinese or are of Amerindian descent, to fend for ourselves. I look forward to the eventual establishment of a new party focused on this neglected group of citizens.
This will help put an end to racial partisan politics and ensure the fostering of dialogue and consensus building in Parliament. We as a nation must find ways to overcome this “do for do” mentality and ensure the remembrance of that old Guyanese saying, “Two wrongs don’t make a right”.
Best regards,
Mr. Changlee
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