H@rd Truths By GHK Lall – Racism: Contradictions of President and Vice President 

Mar 31, 2023 Features / Columnists, News, The GHK Lall Column

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Kaieteur News – I take the liberty of quietly suggesting to His Excellency, President Ali and the Hon. Vice President, Jagdeo that they both pause and first listen to themselves, when the talk is of racism. They should then study the sum of their words and actions to come to grips with the glaring contradictions that dog their footsteps and public postures.

Since President and Vice President are caught up in their own world, I nominate the Hon. Attorney General and their media helpers to point them to their clothes, and tell both that they have holes. President Ali spoke of racism not succeeding in Guyana. Thanks, sir, for what is well said, and good going. Now, I need help and I come before my head-of-state on bended knee. Why is there only mainly one kind of people around the nation’s oil patrimony?  He should note that they look like he and me. Even in societies where the demographics are more powerfully overwhelming in favour of one race, this disparity in the patrimony, is troubling, lends itself to the rupturing. National rupturing. It is what menaces the President’s stance, and turns it on his head. Make something happen, Dr. President.  Just like how a man named Floyd Haynes was sought and found and then engaged to be around. The original builders cannot be left to be bottom feeders.

Then, against the resonant echoes of President Ali’s lilting speech about racism not succeeding, there was Victoria. A battalion of PPP Government brass, almost a dozen of them, had cause to go to that village. A word of gratitude is offered to the President (with a little helpful conditioner added).  For the Prime Minister and his small PPP legion to rush hastily to Victoria registers as rescue operation and face-saving exercise. Belated it may be, and under some duress, I still put two hands together for President and Vice President, since such things do not get off the ground without the latter’s nod.

My conditioner, Dr. President, is straight: why Victoria, and why on such a rush job basis?  Why, if those residents had been dealt with early, fairly, and may I say equitably?  What I see, Excellency, is people who were abandoned at sea.  Without a paddle.  Not even a life vest, which is rather callous, in a country whose people’s heads are loaded with more riches than anywhere globally. Don’t take the word of a nonentity like me for it; consult with supportive analysts, economists, and media artists.

To my President and the man controlling most things of substance in this country (the former President and now Vice President), this looks a little on the ruffling and ragged side. With all those billions shared out for the benefit of communities and peoples hither, thither, and yon, this is revealing.  Especially when the people are primarily like me and my brothers in the PPP, President Ali and the VP.  When gathered in the palm of my hand, the many Victoria (s) scattered in Guyana’s landscape, buffeting headwinds are experienced, which I identify for H.E and the VP: racism in action, discriminatory at work, sirs.  I refuse to sully this contribution with another word that begins with an ‘a.’

Because there are citizens within the PPP Government’s sphere, and under its leadership’s yokes that have been neglected, and unequally treated.  Tense circumstances require these emergency exercises to villages known not to take things sitting down points to the PPP’s slip that is showing. It is one that looks rather shredded and smeared. When the VP lost his head and went overboard at IDPADA-G seniors, it was left to the Hon Attorney General to put the pieces back together.  What is noteworthy are the entities and people targeted, weakened, and reduced to despair. To the good doctors, President and Vice President, those people look like Black people to me.  Racism practiced?  Or racism vanishing?

One last thing, a few morsels only.  First, when the elected representatives of those same people in parliament and in communities are converted into meaningless bystanders, then that hurts racial healing. Racism succeeds. Second, when union leaders of the same people are bypassed, or bought out, then racism is in motion, somehow fueled. Third, when the public service (those same people yet again) is squeezed and pulverized, then racism triumphs, with its perceptions and experiences nurtured. With each new instance of the PPP Government, President, and Vice President loudly proclaiming how much they are against racism, and for all Guyanese, but doing what deals repeated deathblows to their words, then it is what gives new and vigorous life to racism, and its ongoing success in Guyana. I exhort both President and VP to consider how their contradictions feed narratives, environment, and Guyana’s reality. Have words and actions merge, and there is no need for this type of writing. Further, there will be sparse ground for the racism that grows so richly to take hold and spread. Equitable deeds must bolster velvety racial words. Fair and balanced racial performance and product must match postures, Dr. President.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and beliefs of this newspaper and its affiliates.)

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• contradictions, GHK Lall, President, racism, Vice President

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