Dear Editor:

OUR ability to meet the challenges facing this nation on the social cohesion front and to achieve the opportunities of our time depends in large measure on how we configure and construct the next Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC). While our people have worked out their own mechanism at the local level to co-exist side by side amiably, at the national level, the social cohesion and ethnic relations situation is in an abysmal shape.

There are many reasons for this, but one cannot deny that the attempt to dominate the conversation by the Georgetown-based elites is a serious causation of the social cohesion degradation.  One only has to examine the list of invitees to nominate the next Commission on Ethnic Relations and you can easily identify how rural Guyana is being marginalised in this process.  It seems as though people from Buxton and Albion, Victoria and Enmore have no say in national life anymore. Less than 15 percent of the invited organisations have their genesis in rural Guyana.

But to compound this eye-pass against rural Guyana, one can drill down another layer to observe what is the state of representation for different segments of the rural society.   Because of lack of space I will focus on two segments of society – rural Hindus and rural youths.

Hindus constitute some 30 percent of the nation and most of them live in rural Guyana.  However, on the list of invitees to this nomination process for the ERC, the Hindus are provided with less than 10 percent representation and most of the invited Hindu groups are Georgetown-based. Why are bodies such as
Tain Hindu Mandir, the Mahaica Creek Hindu Temple, the De Hoop Hindu Temple, the Unity Shiva Mandir, the Strathaven Hindu Temple, the Lusignan Mandir, the Enterprise Hindu Mandir, the Guava Bush Hindu Temple, the Enmore Shiva Mandir, and the Annandale Hindu Temple not invited? I can list at least 40 other Hindu Groups across rural Guyana who have been excluded from this process.  Isn’t this a clear and present act of discrimination against rural Hindus?

We talk every day about equal rights for women, but yet this perverted system cannot recognise the power of the rural Hindu woman.  Strong women leaders, who continue to mould communities in rural Guyana, dominate the management scene in most of these rural temples, but they have no voice according to these Georgetown- based elites.

Now what about the rural youths?  The footballers and cricketers in Buxton, Albion, Victoria and Enmore have no voice in this process?  Why are they not being invited to this ERC nomination process?  Again, more than 65 percent of Guyana are youths, but if you observe the youth groups, save and except for the Rose Hall Group, there is again a predominance of the urban elites.

So I am calling out these blatant acts of marginalisation on the part of the Georgetown-based ruling elites and let the record show that unless the rural Hindus and rural youths are not properly represented in the ERC, it will be another failed institution of Guyana.

One of the most progressive political documents crafted in Guyana, the Herdmanston Accord, caused the establishment of the ERC.  It was made a constitutional body and was designed to do many things, but one of its most important role remains:

How can we promote harmony and good relations when rural Guyana remains largely excluded from the nomination process to the Commission? Or is this more public relations gimmickry?

Rural Guyana have already expressed  their displeasure at being so under-represented in the state institutions under this Coalition Government in the just concluded Local Government Elections, but like no one seems to be listening to their voices.

Let us be mature and rise about our comfort zones and do the right thing if we want to progress Guyana’s human development.  The status quo is nothing but counterproductive.

Regards

Sase Singh