…Hinds, Lewis warn Afro-Guyanese about PPP ‘face-changing’ mission
…say Jagdeo must apologise for atrocities, seek genuine political solution

EXECUTIVE Member of the Working People’s Alliance (WPA) Dr. David Hinds and Trade Unionist Lincoln Lewis, are warning Afro-Guyanese against the PPP’s ‘face-changing’ mission, saying that Bharrat Jagdeo must first apologise for the atrocities he allegedly meted out to that segment of society and, that his party should pursue a more lasting solution with the representatives of the black community.

Jagdeo, who is Opposition Leader and General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP), was president for some 12 years here. During his tenure, some 400 Afro Guyanese were killed by an alleged state-sponsored death squad and a number of black communities marginalized, which Lewis, himself, had referred to as “economic genocide.”

Additionally, during a court hearing in 2011, the former Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon, had said that no Afro-Guyanese was qualified to be an ambassador, save and except Elizabeth Harper, who later became that party’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2015 elections. Harper had held the position of Ambassador to CARICOM and Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Jagdeo, in recent times has sought to deny these charges, and even boasted that the black community prospered more under the PPP than any other government. In an interview on Saturday, just after his party elected Irfaan Ali as its Presidential Candidate, Jagdeo told reporters that one of his tasks moving forward will be to change the face of the PPP. “I have a job as General Secretary of the party.

Here we have selected a Presidential Candidate. My job as General Secretary of the party is many folds. It is to grow the party, and I have said how we will do that is that I have set myself the task of greater inclusion in the party, changing the face of the party, more afro-Guyanese in our party at every level, because we are strongly represented by Indo-Guyanese and Amerindians, and that’s one of my tasks as General Secretary”, Jagdeo said.

MIXED FEELINGS
However, Dr. Hinds a black activist and community leader said that he has mixed feelings about Mr. Jagdeo’s intention, to include more African Guyanese in the PPP. Dr Hinds said on the one hand, one must welcome any serious move by one of our major parties to reach across the ethnic divide. “There is always a place for such initiative if they are guided by sincerity, and a real concern for improved race relations. Any party is free to campaign in any community and to make a pitch for votes. And, in that regard the PPP should not be prevented from making its case to African Guyanese,” Dr Hinds said.

However, he noted that he was afraid that given Jagdeo’s track record in this regard: “I am very skeptical.” According to Hinds, in the past the PPP’s outreach to African Guyanese has amounted to “ethnic window dressing”, something that has not contributed to national unity. He said that in Jagdeo’s case, his regime’s policies which were grounded in ethnic domination have left lasting scars on the African-Guyanese collective psyche.

“It was not just the biasness towards the PPP’s traditional base that was cause for concern, but it was the way, in which the state in conjunction with the so called “phantom” forces, were systematically used to directly and indirectly crush the soul and the spirit of African-Guyanese,” Dr. Hinds told the Guyana Chronicle in an interview.

CRIMINALISATION OF BUXTON
Asked to list some examples of these allegations, he mentioned the use of the police at Linden during the crisis brought about by the PPP’s attempt to remove an economic subsidy. This, Dr Hinds said, “is still very fresh in our minds.” Additionally, “We remember the government’s response to the Buxton scenario that did not just punish the politico-criminal gangs, but criminalised and assaulted an entire community and beyond.

We remember how the PPP used the State and other institutions to embed fun and frolic in the African-Guyanese community, rather than introduce serious policies aimed at economic and cultural empowerment. We remember the PPP ignoring the wishes of the African-Guyanese cultural leadership and unilaterally making decisions on sensitive cultural issues like the 1823 Monument,” Dr. Hinds said.

He reminded the Afro-Guyanese that the PPP has never apologised for those infractions and sought to compensate them. “I am on record of calling on the coalition to apologise to African-Guyanese for not following through on campaign promises. I hold the PPP to the same standard. Until that party acknowledges its past misdeeds and put on the table real policies, aimed at dealing with the ethnic imbalance in the economy, I would not take its outreach to African Guyanese seriously,” Dr. Hinds declared.

STRUCTURAL PROBLEMS
Hinds said there are serious structural problems in the African-Guyanese community that are unique to that community, some of which are historical, and some which were directly and indirectly caused by the policies of the Jagdeo regime. “Let Mr. Jagdeo tell us how he intends to deal specifically with those unique problems that are grounded in the ethnic imbalance that he exacerbated. He must tell African-Guyanese how he intends to close the gap in key areas of the economy.

He must say, categorically, where he and the PPP stand on Executive Power Sharing with the representatives of African-Guyanese. He must vow not to use the State again to physically and economically assault African-Guyanese youth. He must vow not to use the State again to bribe African-Guyanese to become PPP enforcers. He must vow not to use the State again to turn African-Guyanese youth into chronic party animals,” Dr. Hinds clearly expressed.

Only recently, PPP Member of Parliament (MP) Juan Edghill is alleged to have defined Lindeners as ‘black and hard-headed.’ The alleged racial comments were revealed by two, PPP Linden members who recently resigned from the party. Both said that they were present at a meeting when Edghill made the statement. In fact, former member Kevon Lorrimor said that Edghill has been using racial and derogatory remarks to describe Lindeners since 2015. He alleged that one time it got so bad that he and the bishop had an exchange of expletives, since he was in defense of Lindeners.

Another former PPP member Akanni Blair said, that the leader of the PPP and executives are aware of Edghill’s disrespectful and arrogant attitude, but complaints from comrades of same, fall on deaf ears. Edghill had denied the accusation, saying there is absolutely no truth to them. Speaking directly to African-Guyanese who Dr. Hinds said may be tempted to join the PPP-ticket at the top, “I wish to remind that that approach has never yielded any rewards for the African-Guyanese community.

Those recruits end up representing themselves and eventually becoming diehard PPP members.” Hinds said that in ethnic societies like Guyana, the tactic of one group choosing leaders for the opposite group has never worked. “The PPP would be better advised to seek a political solution with the representatives of African-Guyanese than to try to embrace the failed approaches of the past,” he concluded.

STRONG REJECTION
Meanwhile, Lewis in an invited comment, also strongly rejected what he described as the “cosmetic use of race in the quest to acquire or retain political power.” According to Lewis, racial inclusion and equality must go hand in hand, and the achievement of these is not cosmetic. “Such can only be attainable by respecting laws, putting policies and programmes in place to make meaningful those laws. The Guyana Constitution speaks to racial inclusion and equality, yet they remain elusive,” Lewis stated.

He pointed out that Samuel Hinds served as Prime Minister and President for the 23-years of the PPP/C administration, noting that when Cheddi Jagan picked him, he was said to be the bridge between the PPP (a predominantly Indian party) and the Africans, to ensure this community’s development. “For that 23 years, the development Sam brought was for himself. Odinga Lumumba was Empowerment Adviser for Youth and African Affairs in the PPP-government, but during that period he empowered only himself. The same can be said for other African leaders in the party, be they members or from the Civic component,” Lewis emphasised.

ECONOMIC GENOCIDE
Lewis said he is on record stating the Bharrat Jagdeo administration was engaged in economic genocide in the African community. “This claim was informed by the targeted discriminatory and unequal treatment Afro-Guyanese experienced during his tenure,” Lewis explained. He said that Dr. Luncheon, another Afro-Guyanese served at several influential positions in the PPP government, but it was he who informed the court that the Jagdeo Government never hired any African to head any of the Overseas Missions because none was found to be so qualified.

“Going by evidence of the past, Jagdeo must do much more than make another entreaty, by making clear how increasing African presence in the party will translate to Africans being treated and respected as equal and participating members of this society, that their rights and freedoms will be respected, that Africans will be allowed equitable access, opportunity and benefit to the nation’s resources.”

Lewis asked, where is the policy prescription to make this happen and what programmes will be implemented to give it meaning? “These issues have to be addressed and the PPP must be called to make them public. In the meantime, it’s folly for Afro-Guyanese to rely on assumption that any increased presence, be it in the leadership or rank-and-file membership, of those who look like them, will automatically translate to the empowerment of the community.”