All must oppose the creeping economic apartheid in Guyana

Apr 26, 2021 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
I reaffirm that it is the installed President and PPP policies and actions that are reckless, horrible and divisive as I note that the installed President has gone quiet since I provided evidence of PPP racism. I still await his response.
A system of economic apartheid is gradually being developed in Guyana by the installed Ali/PPP regime.
The PPP’s action of depriving African Guyanese and indigenous communities of the resources to develop small and medium size businesses and focusing them on handouts and the development of playing fields and sport in general, is a clear path to creating dependent and marginalised African and Indigenous communities while the PPP gets richer and dominates and control our society.
While sport is important, the focus can’t be on sport and handouts. What is needed is a comprehensive approach in which all communities, based on equity, are provided with the resources to develop small and medium size businesses that will result in economically and socially stable and sustainable communities.
Afro and Indigenous communities must recognise the present strategy for what it is. It is a strategy to promote dependence and oppression.
Indo and Indigenous Guyanese who are perceived as supporters of the APNU+AFC are being pressured and contracts and jobs are taken from them.
The firing of Indo Guyanese and other workers who were part of CORE is a clear case in point. This attack on our people by the PPP regime must be opposed and brought to an end. The PPP is really low when it descends to the level of firing sanitation workers who are performing their duties in the interest of their communities.
It is also important to note that the installed regime wants Afro Guyanese to return the land they obtained legally under the APNU+AFC government. This is a clear indication that the PPP believes that African Guyanese must be landless and continuously oppressed.
The PPP knows the power and importance of land and is depriving Afro Guyanese of land on a commercial scale. At the same time, they are allocating lands to their elite, their friends and families. PPP nepotism continues.
Clearly, they are creating a system of economic apartheid with the intention of destroying African Guyanese communities and our beloved country.
If you add to the foregoing, that the installed regime is clearly unwilling to deal with Rusal in the bauxite industry (which employs predominantly Afro Guyanese) and to attract an investor for bauxite their penchant for discrimination is obvious.
At the same time, they are expending billions on a sugar industry that has to be subsidised and is clearly not viable. It is therefore obvious that the PPP regime is moving in the direction of economic apartheid. Please note as well that bauxite is still viable.
I note the announcement that $200 m will be made available to pay sugar workers. I believe that sugar workers need the increase since the cost of living is rising under the installed regime. But so too are the public servants. The increase in cost of living has eroded the significant increases they got under the APNU+AFC.
To add salt to the wound, Region 10 is the gateway to the interior and the Lethem to Linden road will boost economic activities in Region 10. One would have expected that the regime would pursue the construction of the Lethem to Linden road that has been in the making for years.
On the contrary, the regime is seeking to bring a road from Bartica area to Timehri area so that Region 10 and Linden can be bypassed. This is clearly an act that is discriminatory and is aimed at stifling economic development in Region 10.
The PPP has a glorious opportunity to pursue policies and programmes that will contribute to the development of all Guyana.
Unfortunately, the regime cannot because discriminating against Afro Guyanese, Indigenous people and Indo Guyanese who are perceived to be APNU+AFC is interwoven into the fabric of their mode of operation.
The PPP approach is one of domination and control of the total society and not democracy and development.
Economic apartheid is aimed at consolidating the domination of African Guyanese and Indigenous and Indo Guyanese who are perceived to be supporters of the APNU+AFC while the PPP monopolises the benefits to be had from the resources of Guyana, especially those to be had from the oil and gas industry as they plunder the nation’s resources through corrupt practices.
The installed regime policies and actions create political and social tension and are responsible for the present environment which is not conducive to the development of Guyana.
Guyana needs a Government that will govern in the interest of all Guyanese like the APNU+AFC did between 2015 and 2020.
The PPP has never, and will never ever fit that bill.
The people of Guyana deserve better. Let us oppose the creeping economic apartheid since it is counterproductive. Let us pave the way for a government that will treat all Guyanese equally.
All Guyana knows fairness breeds stability and development. Unfair practices and discrimination breed political and ethnic tension. They retard development. It is time for inclusiveness and democracy. Let us oppose the creeping economic apartheid.
Aubrey C. Norton

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