THE issue of ethnic balancing in our armed forces has once again come to the fore with commentators in mainstream and social media voicing their opinions.

Intermittently, it has been a topic of discussion, particularly in the aftermath of the 1992 national elections that brought the PPP//C to power, when the question of the ethnic composition of, especially the national army, gained currency. Of course, constituents were encouraged to enlist for service, as part of an active political policy of the party. And even though there was the subsequent Disciplined Forces Commission that made a raft of recommendations with regard to the cultural needs of Indo-Guyanese who would want to become servicemen, the expected rush for enlistment did not occur. As a matter of fact, it was reported that although there was some response, most of the recruits soon dropped out.

Guyana has a traditional pattern as far as enlistment in the country’s security forces is known: and this pre-dates our independence, which pattern of ethnic composition has continued on to now. It is one where Afro-Guyanese have favoured the Public Service as a means of employment in deference to the medium of self-employment by Indo-Guyanese, who gravitated towards the more lucrative pattern of business and commerce, as a means of livelihood. This was the realisation that surfaced in the face of the low Indo-Guyanese response to joining the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), post-1992.

Thus, the accusations of ethnic discrimination against those Indo-Guyanese who applied to become members of the army, even to the point of discouraging such, cannot stand, since there is no evidence that supports such a perception. One only has to refer to those initial Indo-Guyanese who became officers and went on to serve with distinction: Major-General Joe Singh, ret’d., former Chief- of-Staff; Lieutenant-Colonel Rohan Seopaul; Majors Vibert Budhoo, and Ishoof; Captain Kennard Ramphal, who served as a former ADC to the late President Arthur Chung, and others whose names cannot now be recalled. The fact that these named officers rose to their individual serving ranks, is because they answered the call to duty as Guyanese, and not to the insular voice of race. They made the army and all Guyana proud, because of their service and loyalty to country.

And there are still high-ranking Indo-Guyanese officers within the GDF, with the current deputy chief-of-staff of such an ethnic background. Even the personnel of the Guyana Police Force, is representative of many Indo-Guyanese senior officers, so again, it is a bird that cannot fly.

Though one understands the complexities and challenges of our society, because our national army and law-enforcement agencies have stuck to their mandate of serving in the national interest. And in this regard, the GDF stands head and shoulders above all, no doubt living up to its brand as the Peoples’ Army, which means serving the nation in any and every critical situation, whether air-dashing the seriously ill from distant areas–a well-known capability that saved many lives–or retrieving the bodies of citizens from crash sites, and in other tragic circumstances.

It must be emphasised that a nation’s armed forces is about the call to the ultimate form of duty that could ever be undertaken by any national institution. It is about service in defence of our sovereignty. This is a call to the highest form of patriotism, which has no cash value in terms of what is required of any citizen who answers such a call. It is a selfless understanding and commitment to country first, which no other consideration must stand in the way of such a sacred acceptance of loyalty and duty to such an undertaking.
Therefore, a national army must not become the repository for those who wish to serve on the basis of such a dangerous platform of race and ethnicity; or satisfying any such criterion in the form of quotas, or becoming hostage to any such anti-national thinking. The mission of the army is too crucial, sacred, and central to the national well-being, to be entrusted to citizens of such a narrow mindset who aspire to its ranks. To the nation’s benefit, the GDF must be credited with continuing to stand aloof from such parochialism, while maintaining its professionalism.