PLAYING the race card, according to President Donald Ramotar, is a tactic to distract the Guyanese people, given that the Opposition parties have not gained the “traction” expected after coalescing into an Alliance.“It is clear that the APNU-AFC is not getting the traction they wanted from their coalition, and they are in fact losing ground…It is becoming clear that they are using the race card (as a means of appealing to electors),” he said during an interview aired last night on the National Communications Network (NCN).

This resort, Mr Ramotar surmised, is grounded in the fact that the new Alliance cannot compete with the ruling Party’s track record, given the actions and positions taken in the years of the former People’s National Congress (PNC) regimes, as well as those evidenced in the three years of the 10th Parliament.
“They cannot bring a record that they will be elected on, and in this regard, they are using the race card,” he opined.

RACISM IN PRACTICE
The Head of State decried the fact that persons in the leadership of the Alliance of A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance For Change (AFC) have demonstrated racism in practice.
“The Opposition parties like to say that they are not about race, but the fact that Mr Nagamootoo could say that he will deliver 11 per cent of the Indian vote to APNU, clearly shows that there is ethnic counting in their political calculation,” he said.
Mr Ramotar noted that ‘talk is cheap’ and what Guyana needs is real action to match positions that are articulated publicly.
“We saw this last year too; where their messages were different to the different communities they went to,” he said.
On that note, the President reiterated the demerits of practised racism in Guyana, particularly with elections in the air.

NATIONAL PARTY
In a further effort to disabuse the criticism that it is the incumbent People’s Progressive Party/ Civic (PPP/C) that engages in race-baiting, he charged that reality cannot be changed and facts remain facts.
“The PPP was founded as a national party and it has remained a national party since then,” Mr Ramotar stressed.
He referred to the documented positions of the PPP’s founder, Dr Cheddi Jagan, where racism in all its forms was denounced as a matter of principle for the party.
“Dr Jagan was of the view that anyone who practised racism is an enemy to the country and an enemy to themselves…that is the Party I grew up in and that is the Party that I have been General Secretary of…that is the tradition I follow and that is the direction that we follow,” the President said.
According to him, the track record of consecutive PPP/C administration makes clear which side of the line the Party stands.
“We have never had a policy or programme that favours one race at the expense of another,” he said.
He did acknowledge, however, that the only special attention given to a particular group of Guyanese is that which is given to the nation’s first peoples, the Amerindians.
“We have a programme that gives priority to the Amerindian,” Mr Ramotar said, unapologetically.
The President reasoned that this is owing to the fact that their interests have been under-addressed because of colonialism, among other factors.
“We have national policies that benefit Guyanese across the length and breadth of Guyana…there is no policy that anyone can identify, or practise (to say that the PPP favours one group ahead of another),” he said.
SMARTER THAN THAT
The Head of State expressed the view that the Guyanese people are “smart enough” to see past the rhetoric and recognise reality for what it is.
“We have to constantly fight against this perception,” he said, explaining that misinformation and the peddling of falsehoods have fed the notion that there is a practice of racism.
Mr Ramotar stated too that that mindset of the factions touting such negativity belies an attempt that is premised on the saying ‘if you repeat a lie enough, it becomes truth’.
“There is the hope that if they repeat these accusations (of racism) some of them will stick…we have to counter this by going to reality. We have to depend on truth and fact and show the people what has been done across the country,” he said.
The President delved deeper in affirming his Party’s efforts to rely on truth and fact and questioned who benefits from the practice of racism.
“Racism, itself, has an economic base. In every country where it is practised there is an economic reason. In South Africa, it was for the whites to have a higher standard of living at the expense of non-white people…(in Guyana) there is no one that can say there is one ethic group living at a higher standard at the expense of another,” he posited.
All considered, Mr Ramotar concluded confidently that truth in the end will prevail and fact will evidence where his Party stands on efforts to deliberately divide Guyanese and strain the ethic tapestry of the country.

(By Vanessa Narine)