IN RECENT years, racial incitement to sustain a predatory political culture in Guyana continues to be at the top of the distortionists’ propaganda list. Particular political operatives, the private media, and now hate literature have graduated to becoming the main conduits of racial provocation. These are daily happenings, albeit in a camouflaged way, in the name of seeking political power. However, applying racial incitement not only is an illicit mechanism in the pursuit of power. Racial incitement is a violation of the rule of law.

Despite the daily dosage of racial incitement to induce ethnic polarization for destabilization purposes, the masses of all ethnic groups, devoid of hatred for each other, remain undisturbed, as evidenced through their regular interactions. The UN Special Rapporteur Mr. Doudou Diène attested to this scenario, thus “…that, despite everything, this polarization, in all communities and at all levels of society, has resulted not in feelings of hatred between communities but rather in a culture of fear and mistrust which pervades all social activity.  During his meetings and interviews, he also noted the existence of a sense of belonging at all levels of society.  Therefore, at the basic level of the people’s deepest feelings, Guyanese society does nurture the human values necessary for overcoming ethnic polarization and collectively building genuine pluralism, through which a dynamic, creative balance could enable cultural and spiritual differences to be recognized, respected, protected and promoted and universal values arising out of cross-fertilization among communities to be cultivated…The story of Guyana is, to a deeply disturbing degree, the story of political exploitation of the race factor by every political leader from every point on the ideological spectrum…”

Nevertheless, we must recognize that the masses do not drive any ethnic polarization; this nefarious act is the work of unwholesome political functionaries, the private media, and hate literati. The masses must know that some political operatives exploit the race factor to gain electoral advantage and niceties. It is this political exploitation that generates mistrust and fear; the masses really are not a factor in this ensemble of racial agitators’ activities and grand political designs.