FIRST of all, I must commend the AFC for their timely responses here in the letter columns to queries and concerns about certain aspects of their Action Plan, as outlined at the launch of their campaign on January 29. Mr. Tarron Khemraj was able to clarify to some extent my questions pertaining to ethnic impact studies proposed by the AFC, in his letter of February 6 (Stabroek News). He suggested that the media may have inaccurately reported on the implementation of ethnic impact studies and stated that contrary to the report, these studies will not be done ‘for all important Cabinet decisions and all new major programmes within government departments’. Since this was reported by the Stabroek News on January 30, in the interest of clarity, the AFC should have set the record straight instead of waiting for someone to question this, since what the Stabroek News reported was extraordinary indeed. Answers to my other questions relating to the execution of these ethnic impact studies were expertly avoided by Mr. Khemraj.
Nevertheless, in reading his letter, a troubling pattern emerges. There is an implicit view in Mr. Khemraj’s letter that Indians are the most favoured of the ethnic groups in Guyana. What is explicit is how the AFC intends to address this; by simply discriminating against Indians. These are the words of Mr. Khemraj; “On the other hand, the AFC is also committed to freeing up the airwaves in the first year by allowing private radio stations. In this case, it will be reckless to offer licenses to folks from mainly one ethnicity – for example rich Indians.”
I consider this to be a highly discriminatory statement. Am I to conclude that, for example, one of the grounds for being disqualified from obtaining a radio license under an AFC government is to be a ‘rich Indian’? What criteria are the AFC using to determine who a ‘rich Indian’ is? Should the applicants for a radio license all fall under the ‘rich Indian’ category, what will happen then, no radio license will be granted to anyone?
The AFC’s economic policies cannot be ‘designed to lift all citizens’ as the AFC would like us to believe, but rather, to punish who the AFC perceives to be ‘rich Indians’ or supporters of the PPP. This is a dangerous strategy that should be of concern to all Guyanese since it is clearly not based on equal rights and equal opportunity.