AG’s debunking of now postponed/cancelled “Cuffy 250” malicious forum

Aug 23, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Mohabir Anil Nandlall, SC, MP, Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, declared that “MY attention was drawn to an invitation to the public, by an organisation describing itself as ‘The Cuffy 250 Committee,” to a forum, that was supposed to be held on Sunday, August 21. This meeting, as we have now learned, has been prematurely postponed or cancelled.  The AG added that “The invitation informs that it is the “9th annual forum on the state of African Guyanese.” (And that) Invitees are requested to discuss “Resisting the Emerging Apartheid State.”

Anil’s justified and legal wrath is centred on the actual theme (that was to be), “Resisting the Emerging Apartheid State,” as a description of conditions in Guyana. Anil embraced Mr. Floyd Haynes’ decision to refuse the invitation to participate, as he too is completely rejecting the odiously untenable and fallacious phrase, ‘Resisting the Emerging Apartheid State’ to describe conditions in Guyana. Haynes seemed livid, stating that “In my view, this statement is a disservice to all Guyanese, as such, I wish to categorically dissociate myself from it. More importantly, I am a firm supporter of His Excellency, the President of Guyana and I am absolutely convinced that it is not part of the President’s agenda to create any disparity based on race.”

Now, comes my take on the issue, and I hope to provoke some serious considerations and responses.

First, it is that the AG, almost belatedly came to the ‘party.’ He should have been apprised (like ASAP) of this development. It was well advertised and promoted. So, my umbrage is that the Government media failed to pick up on it, neither did the ‘candid’ and ‘independent’ reporters ‘jump’ on this distasteful and incitingly planned forum with its horrible topic. I mean how come, supposed seasoned and carefully chosen operatives in the PPP/C and the Government by extension, did not see it fit to debunk this blasphemy.

I firmly believe that Neaz Subhan’s NCN, Tajeram Mohabir’s Chronicle and the DPI (whoever is in charge) are simply perfunctory, non-combative and ill-equipped. They seem to be lacking in ‘media savvy’ and they are all failing to realise and internalise the ‘real issues’ of the day. As far as outreach goes, the Government media has the tiniest of audiences. A mere walk in the streets of Georgetown will reveal that the NCN’s Voice of Guyana is hardly listened to. It is usually NTN, RGI and Gordon Moseley that people are tuned to. Ask the paper vendors and they will tell you that Kaieteur and Stabroek News carry the selling power. It is not the Chronicle. If you doubt me, send your surveyors to do the field work. Currently, ‘Guyana Times ‘carry the punch’ for the PPP/C.

Getting back to the AG, I really do welcome his erudite response on the issue. He was succinct, terse and most importantly, as is his wont, he took a legal stand on the issue. Noting that “Apart from the patent falsehood inherent in the theme, I am of the considered view that the entire discussion, likely to ensue (for now it will not) would be proscribed not only by the ordinary laws of Guyana, but by the supreme law, the Constitution.” He quite accurately informed all that “Apartheid’’ is defined by the New Oxford Dictionary of English as “A policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race.’’ And indeed, as he added, we all know that “Historically, this phrase is used to describe a one-time government policy in South Africa.”

What was poignant is that the AG pointed out that “Where Guyana is concerned, Article 149 of the Constitution guarantees protection to every citizen against discrimination on the grounds of race, ethnicity, religion, etc.” Also, we must internalise that “The State of Guyana has signed and ratified every major international treaty in this hemisphere which outlaws racial and ethnic discrimination.”

I think that there should be a “Call In” show, Government sponsored too, where the AG can take calls and educate the public that indeed “Many of these treaties (he alludes to) form part of the Fourth Schedule of the Guyana Constitution … (and that) Article 154 of that Constitution binds the Executive, the Legislature, the Judiciary and all organs and agencies of Government to respect and uphold those rights … (as)  “All persons, institutions and political parties are prohibited from taking any action or advancing, disseminating or communicating any idea which may result in racial or ethnic division among the people.”

Editor, an August 20 letter (in the Kaieteur News, Stabroek News and Guyana Times), “Debunking the evil of Cuffy 250” preceded the AG’s dissertation. The writer was on target and in synchrony with the AG. He invoked the Government’s clear-cut policy of no-discrimination. He pointed to what is happening within the country in the areas of land-distribution/titling and education. What was very timely was his reminder of the ‘Because We Care’ cash grant, where Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand vowed that each child in the public school system would benefit from this yearly and ever-increasing rollout. Priya, the writer noted, emphatically emphasised that “Whether you’re African, Chinese, Indo-Guyanese, Amerindian, Portuguese, Mixed, you will leave here with your cash grant because we’re not asking about your ethnicity. This morning, whether you are Muslim, Christian, Hindu, Rastafarian, nothing or Bahá?í, once your children are in school, you will leave here with the cash grant.”

Again, to the AG, who went full-throttle in delineating that the current Administration is most averse to anything discriminatory. So let me finish off by going back to the Rodney Commission of Inquiry.

I think our memory is fresh. It was in May 2016, and only after lots of dalliance from the then APNU+AFC Government and some three months after the Commission of Inquiry Report was received that the said APNU+AFC government, that it was finally handed over to the then House Speaker, Dr. Barton Scotland, to be properly laid in the National Assembly. I add that pressure from then the Opposition People’s Progressive Party (PPP) led to this, and even so, erstwhile Attorney General, Basil Williams insisted that the Report was flawed and will be challenged. This begs the logical question, “Which Government is pro-African?” The details of that saga show that even before this Report was laid out, that the PNC/R, the main component of the Opposition Coalition at that time, avowed repeatedly that it was not going to participate in the Commission of Inquiry into the death of Walter Rodney. So, yet again, my question looms up, “Who is really on the side of Afro-Guyanese?” And therefore, “From whence cometh the idea of an ‘Emerging Apartheid’ State?”

May I remind people, as did the AG, that this country is the vanguard anti-discriminatory land, as “Guyana’s constitution establishes a broad-based Ethnic Relations Commission to which the citizenry can complain against racial, ethnic, and other forms of discrimination” Also, that “The (said) Commission has a wide plenitude of powers to investigate those complaints and to take remedial actions.”

In signing off, I challenged readers to cogitate on the reality that a total of over three decades of rulership was in the hands of the PNC and APNU combined. In all of these years, Afro-Guyanese were left indigent and their villages, at times, were like ghost towns.  Contrast all of this with what are now the happenings in Golden Grove, Buxton, Agricola and Linden, etc.  I rest my case with reminders that I wish for a call-in programme with the AG leading the way, and for the Government media to be more pro-active, profound and immediate.

 

Yours truly,

Deodat Singh

 

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