Dear Editor,

REFERENCE is made to Roshan Khan’s letter: “Afro-Guyanese are historically indomitable and resourceful” (GC December 7, 2016), which is a response to my letter: “Afro community has a right to form any community that would advance and protect their interest” (GC November 25, 2016).These letters have their genesis in Khan’s expressed disapproval of the African community forming a chamber to advance their business interest. Where he considers my disagreement to his clairvoyant position as “a racist and ethnic rant” without providing any evidence in my letter to prove so is true to his character.

Let me from the outset say that throwing around terms such as “apartheid” and that he “does not see race,” to mask a thinking that is outright intolerant of the rights of another is non-acceptable. I make no apology for my statement: that Africans in this country, as in every country, enjoy the universal fundamental right to economic self-determination. If one avenue of advancing and securing this right is by establishing a business chamber, then it must be respected.

Apartheid speaks to a system where one group assumes superiority over others, and would fortify this discriminatory thinking by putting structures in place to oppress others. The principle under which the African chamber of commerce has been established is not in keeping with apartheid.

Establishing an organisation consistent with the right to freedom of association in pursuing a group’s right to economic self-determination is different from putting structures in place to oppress others.

It may be all well on Khan’s part to claim that he does not see race. On my part, to do so is to deny race as a major factor that breeds and sustains oppression in society; contributes to war; leads to occupation, as seen in the Israel/Palestine conflict; and, more importantly, derecognizes the existence of the United Nations (UN).

One of the major principles that lead to the formation of the UN is that of racial equality, wherein its Human Rights Declaration recognises that all men are created equal, and should be treated with dignity and respect. Were there not the recognition of the practices of race and other inequities, there would have been no need for the UN and this declaration.

The tendency in society to throw around terms to justify denying others what’s rightly theirs must stop. Peace can never be achieved without recognition and respect for the equality of others in all forms. And the universal framework outlining these is grounded in UN declarations, international conventions and charters, and the Guyana Constitution.
Regards,
LINCOLN LEWIS