Guyana is a diverse society. By this I mean that we have a number of ethnic groups that coexist within  a political and economic space that became known as Guyana following the attainment of political independence on May 26, 1966 and Republican status on February 23, 1970. Prior to 1966 Guyana was known as British Guiana after having been a colony of Britain for 150 years.
Nowhere is this diversity more manifest than in the Mashramani celebrations which saw tens of thousands of Guyanese converging on the streets of Georgetown to get a glimpse of the several floats and at the same time socializing in a carnival atmosphere with relatives and friends. There can be no doubt that our Mashramani celebrations are getting bigger and better with each passing year as demonstrated in the thousands who participated in the Mashramani celebrations one way or the other.
It has been a hard and difficult road but we endured and in the process managed to create a society in which our foreparents would have been proud of had they been alive today. From the days of servitude and bondage under slavery we have today fashioned a society in which there is freedom and tolerance.
The challenge before us is that of managing our diversity in a manner in which there is equality of opportunity for all Guyanese regardless of ethnic or political affiliation. This fact has been acknowledged by a Commonwealth Mission which visited the country and on the basis of first hand information and assessment of race relations concluded that race is not a big factor in the country’s political landscape.
According to Mr. Mark Stephens, Head of the Democracy Section at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London who along with Mr. Tafawa Wiliams, Political Advisor for the Caribbean/Pacific Section, race relations in Guyana are in pretty good shape. Both men were of the opinion that concerns about race appeared to be on the backburner for many of the persons they spoke with. In an interview with one of the media outlets the men concluded that based on interviews with political parties in the country  race is not that much of a decisive factor.
This is not the first time that race relations in Guyana got good marks from international institutions.  Prior to the elections of 2006 a team from the United Nations visited Guyana and came to a similar conclusion. Several sociological studies done on race relations found that race problems in Guyana are greatly exaggerated by individuals and groups who seek to gain political advantage by exploiting ethnic  differences.
This is not to say that we did not experience race problems in the past.  Much of the tensions experienced resulted from our past history where our colonial masters sought to dominate and control by way of divide and rule tactics. This started from the early days of our colonial history when Amerindians were used to capture run-away slaves and later on, when attempts were made to pit the newly freed slaves against the imported indentured labourers who were seen as displacing freed labour on the plantations and were therefore responsible for the denial of employment opportunities for the emancipated labourers. It was during the 1960’s, however, that race reared its ugly head when Blacks and Indians were manipulated by vested interests to deny independence status under a PPP government. The country experienced one of its worst manifestations of ethnic strife and tensions which resulted in dozens of deaths and millions of damage to property. The scars of that period is now beginning to dissipate as most of the people living today was not around to experience those painful moments in our history.
As we celebrate 41 years of Republican status we need to reflect on the difficult road we traversed and pledge never to have a return to such a sordid past. This is particularly so as we approach yet another general election and when the propensity to manipulate our diversity could be taken advantage of. Political parties, in particular the main political parties must commit themselves to abide by the rules of engagement which among other things must include a commitment to play by the rules and not to cry foul even when the results were declared free and fair as happened in all elections since 1992 except for the 2006 elections which will go down in our history as the most peaceful and incident free election in our post-independence history.
We owe it to ourselves, our children and generations to come to ensure that our democracy is deepened and consolidated and allegations of fraud and rigged elections are completely obliterated from our political lexicon. If the last election is any guide to go by, we are on the road to such a status.