– responding to Commission’s decree on President’s Babu John statement
THE recent pronouncement by the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) on comments made by President Bharrat Jagdeo at Babu John in Port Mourant came as no surprise to Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, who believes that it is a representation of the Commission discharging its constitutional function. “We have to recognize that the Ethnic Relations Commission has a constitutional role to discharge and notwithstanding the likes and dislikes of the various segments of the Guyanese population, we can say that the Ethnic Relations Commission is…discharging its roles and responsibilities,” Dr Luncheon said. He was, at the time, responding to questions from members of the press at a post-Cabinet media briefing yesterday about the Commission’s recent description of President Jagdeo’s statements.
Despite acknowledging the duty of the ERC, Dr. Luncheon had some reservations about the context in which the Commission interpreted the President’s remarks in its appraisal.
He said the ERC was incognizant of the audience to which the President was addressing, noting that while it was made at Babu John, it catered to all Guyanese including the supporters of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR).
“The potential that was being claimed of inciting the audience at Babu John to the exclusion of the reality of a speech intended using modern technology for the whole of Guyana and the diaspora…that aspect seemed to have been lost by the ERC in their commentary,” Dr Luncheon said.
Speaking at the death anniversary of former President Dr Cheddi Jagan on March 13 this year, President Bharrat Jagdeo remarked that the PNCR’s presidential candidate David Granger was active on the political scene in the era in Guyana when citizens were starved and killed protecting ballot boxes, as in the case of the Ballot Box Martyrs of Berbice.
According to the ERC, the following is the salient part of the President’s speech which seems to be the source of concern:
“The PNC has just chosen as their presidential candidate a man who was very active in that era, the era of oppression, the era of starving our people, and I say this because they have gone backwards, they have gone backwards to choose someone who is characterized by repression, who has blood on his hands, because the people in Berbice, just here, the people who were killed protecting ballot boxes, protecting democracy, were killed in full knowledge of people like Granger and others who controlled the political directions of the country at the time…So they’re counting on poor memories and they’re counting on the lack of knowledge on the part of young people to bring these white elephants, behemoths, the fossils of the past back in the political arena, and I hope that you will, as I ask you, make sure that people are educated about that past…”
The ERC, in releasing its findings on Tuesday, had made it clear that the statements were not found to be inciting in any form although it lacked decorum and Dr. Luncheon pointed to certain facts which the Commission admitted.
The ERC also observed that the reference to ‘people who were killed protecting ballot boxes’ may be ascribed to a factual historic occurrence when the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) shot and killed three PPP activists who were among a group attempting to block the army from removing ballot boxes during the 1973 national elections.

And Dr. Luncheon alluded yesterday to this observation by the ERC, that the ballot box killing and the seizure of those boxes by the military in 1973 were “all factual”.
“The Ethnic Relations Commission commented that the ballot box killing, seizure by the military; they were all factual,” Dr Luncheon declared.
On related events, Cabinet has noted and welcomed what Dr Luncheon described as unambiguous and comprehensive outpouring and repudiation of the statement made by activist of the African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA) Tacuma Ogunseye.
Ogunseye was quoted on April 16, calling for shared governance and in the event that the opposition loses in the upcoming elections, a national government with representatives of African people and the combined opposition as part of the parliament, failing which there will be insurgence to bring Guyana to a halt.
The ERC has since launched an investigation into Ogunseye’s statement which is described as seditious.
At last week’s press conference Dr. Luncheon said expressions of that nature reiterate the need for social sanctions of commentaries and a review of the role of the media which he also believes is culpable for publicizing Ogunseye’s statements.

** PULL QUOTE:
“We have to recognize that the Ethnic Relations Commission has a constitutional role to discharge and notwithstanding the likes and dislikes of the various segments of the Guyanese population, we can say that the Ethnic Relations Commission is…discharging its roles and responsibilities.” – Dr Luncheon