Guyanese as Second Class Citizens

Mar 19, 2019 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

For the last twenty years, Guyanese have been migrating to countries which treated us like we had the palsy. From neighbouring Suriname when they thought they were hot stuff, to Trinidad, Barbados, Antigua, Jamaica, Bahamas and virtually any other country, Guyanese were thought to be in a bracket that was just a notch higher than cockroaches. We still are in some countries. Countries were limiting our immigration for fear of being infested. I never thought I would be one to advocate limiting immigration to a country.
However, today in my dear land of Guyana, there seems to be an influx of Chinese, Brazilians, and more recently Venezuelans. Concerning the latter, I can understand Guyanese extending open arms to welcome them, given the horrors Venezuelans are currently experiencing. I’m particularly concerned with the Chinese. Both our past government and the current administrators seem fond of penning signatures to China’s documents that will bind our country in the kind of suicide deals, which are strangling other countries. The previous government was blatant in giving away parts of the country to the Chinese in exchange for God-knows-what. Kaieteur News has been running one article after the other about the pitfalls into which countries have been throwing themselves, only to have their assets gobbled up by China. Are we heeding these lessons and avoiding these economic traps?
My fear is that if we continue with this open house policy with the Chinese, allowing them to freely ooze into our country and set up shop in just about every facet of our lives, by 2030 if not sooner, we will become second-class-citizens in our own country. We have always had Chinese immigrants in Guyana but never to this level. In years to come, we all will be working for the Chinese and be at their mercy as some developed countries already are.
While Afro and Indo Guyanese squabble over race and politics, it appears our politicians are selling out our country to foreigners. With the oil boom around the corner and a certain greedy politician is again exploiting the race card to manoeuvre himself via a crony into a position to control the country’s wealth again, the foreigners are quietly bribing their way into controlling every aspect of our economy. Unless Afro and Indo Guyanese come to their senses and agitate for steps to be taken for Guyanese to control their destiny, we are doomed to become second-class citizens in our own country. If we thought being disrespected in other countries was terrible, wait until we are despised in our own yard by our new foreign masters.

M. Alves

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