Do Henry Jeffrey and Vincent Alexander think that President Ali’s Indian ethnicity disqualifies him for the African Global Leadership award?

Feb 02, 2024 Letters

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Dear Editor,

The exploitation of racial and ethnic differences in electoral politics is neither a recent, nor an anomalous campaign strategy. In persistent search for relevance, and sights focused on ascending into the office of governance and political power, desperate politicians seldom hesitate from invoking racial and ethnic distinctions in efforts to galvanize public support. Such political chicanery is not new to Guyana’s national politics. In 1957, Burnham effectively appealed to racial differences in his break from the PPP, and his formation of the PNC. Today, PNC leaders and their surrogates regularly accuse the PPP/C government of racism while they themselves utilize race to instigate and promote indifferences and distrust.

Today, accusations of racism against the PPP/C reflect themselves in artful and crafty forms as if to guise the real racist intent of the individual accuser. Let’s take Dr. Henry Jeffrey’s letter entitled, “Our president’s African Award and government attitude towards UG” (KN 1/30/24). No sooner Jeffrey completed his first sentence, he proceeded headlong into a verbal rant against the African Prosperity Network, the sponsors of the African Global Leadership Award to be bestowed on President Irfaan Ali. After some meandering explanations, and incoherent verbiage to discredit the sponsorship organization, Jeffrey’s own words began to reveal his real racist motivation when he said, “… given the history and current behaviour of the PPP towards Africans…” To this statement Jeffrey failed to provide any “historical” or “current behavioral” evidence of PPP’s discriminatory behaviour towards Afro-Guyanese. Had Jeffrey searched for evidence, he would have found that, President Ali regularly reaches out to, and engages Afro-Guyanese on, local projects and community/individual needs.

Turning attention to UG, Jeffrey rambled on saying, “It is … indicative of the kind of company the PPP needs to sustain in its attempt to hoodwink the world that it has substantial support in Guyana as it continues upon its autocratic pathway towards ethnic dominance… What is taking place at the University of Guyana is a sufficient reminder of the PPP’s ethnic agenda… In 2003, just after the PPP drive for ethnic dominance began…”

Jeffrey quoted statements, and multiple use of the word “ethnic” clearly disclose his racialization of the issues, whether it relates to the African Global Leadership award, governance of the country, or the University of Guyana. Prior to Jeffrey, Vincent Alexander showed his distaste for awarding the African Global Leadership to President Ali. Alexander wrote, “The Burnham Foundation is compelled, at this juncture, to call upon the African Prosperity Network to rescind the decision to bestow President Irfaan Ali” (KN 1/26/24). In seeking to discredit the President, Alexander went on to state, “The Ali regime has openly articulated that Guyanese of African descent, as a subset of the population, do not need equitable treatment, as redress for post emancipation economic and social deprivation… the disrespect for the people of African descent …”

Alexander’s racists appeal became increasingly evident in the final paragraph of his letter which he ended by saying, “The brethren from Ghana would be best advised to, themselves, embrace equity and probity and not repeat the ills of some of our ancestors, from that land, who sold our fore parents into slavery. “Except for its racial content, the intent of this sentence is somewhat baffling. Both Jeffrey and Alexander’s letters are indications of racial absurdities to discredit President Ali. Ali has demonstrated time and again, both through national policies and personal actions his commitment to building a unified and just Guyana, a nation in which all racial and ethnic groups can harmoniously coexist. For this, being bestowed with the African Leadership Award is simply an acknowledgement of his efforts and commitment to a humane Guyanese identity and society. However, if Jeffries and Alexander’s intent is that he be denied the award because he is not of African descent, then this not only suggests deep seated racism, but also indicates some level of political chicanery.

If someone’s ethnicity disqualifies him/her for political leadership acknowledgement, then Dr. Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, and to some degree Kwame Nkrumah, would not have credited Mahatma Ghandi – a non-African – for impacting their lives and influencing their political philosophies. Indeed, Irfaan Ali is not of the stature of Ghandi, but he is of Indian ancestry who is working assiduously amid racists’ appeals to unify his multi-racial, multi-ethnic nation, and for this an African organization would like to honor him for his leadership efforts. Would Jeffries, and Alexander, prefer that the African Prosperity Network not bestow the leadership award upon the Guyanese President because of the non-African ancestry? If we could summon up the Spiritual Souls of Martin Luther King, Mandela, Nkrumah, and even Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s, what would they say? Would they agree with Jeffries and Alexander? What do you think?

Regards,

Narayan Persaud, PhD.

Professor Emeritus

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• Henry Jeffrey, Indian, Narayan Persaud, PhD, Vincent Alexander

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