— says Minister Walrond

MINISTER of Tourism, Industry and Commerce, Oneidge Walrond, has called out the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) Coalition for apparently believing that they have a “monopoly” over Afro-Guyanese.

The Coalition, the minister said, believes that Afro-Guyanese must automatically support them.

Speaking at a press conference on Thursday at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre, the minister was referencing an incident where an employee of Parliament Office, Ean McPherson, was called a derogatory racial slur by APNU+AFC Member of Parliament (MP), Maureen Philadelphia.

“This young man, lying down on the ground, unable to defend himself is being verbally assaulted and called the vilest of names and so what does this attitude says? This attitude says that as an Afro-Guyanese you have to automatically support the APNU+AFC, that is what you should do and when you don’t you are assaulted, insulted, berated and called all kinds of houseslave,” she said.

Walrond registered strong condemnation of what she summarised as the “attitude” of the APNU+AFC, labelling it as “disturbing” and “bullyism” and expressed that “the public should not take it lightly and it is not funny.”

The minister shared her own personal experience, noting that she was subject to the same kind of condemnation from the APNU+AFC when she was appointed a minister of government under the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C), before she was even given a chance to prove her competency.

“From day one I was berated about being a houseslave and being unworthy because I have exercised my right of self-determination and decided that I want to support who I want to support and what I want to put my support behind,” she said.

RIGHT TO SELF-DETERMINATION
She explained that “freedom is the right to self-determination” but “that right of self-determination, according to the APNU+AFC can only arise when it’s showing support for them.”

However, the minister made it abundantly clear that no one should have to apologise for supporting whoever they choose to.

Walrond highlighted that the behaviour of APNU+AFC MP Philadelphia in the National Assembly on Wednesday evening is the same behaviour the political party displays within communities, locally and abroad.

She mentioned that the APNU+AFC must be of the view that they exercise a monopoly over the Afro-Guyanese population whereby the specific demographic must vote along racial lines for the party or be subject to derogatory treatment.

“If it’s not political then why are you not a house slave when you support their party?” she asked, noting that by the APNU+AFC allowing themselves to abuse McPherson because he did not allow Opposition MP Annette Ferguson to steal the ceremonial Mace, is testimony to their ideology.

In a country where the politics have been divided along racial lines for decades, the minister highlighted that more Afro-Guyanese are supporting the PPP/C because of the party’s policies, and therefore, the APNU+AFC is threatened politically.

“It is not about policy; this is a political move – them feeling that they are desperate and so they lash out, they feel desperate, it’s all motivated where they are feeling vulnerable politically,” she said.

“We saw that display with that young man on the ground who has nothing to do with a party but was just there doing his job and he was insulted and bullied and denigrated and if there was no one there he could have been terribly injured,” she added.

The minister registered that she has not seen any “outcry” from civil society groups about the attack of McPherson and called for total condemnation of the behaviour of the APNU+AFC.

“I do want to sound an alarm for this kind of behaviour. We cannot condone it. I want to call on civil society to see this behaviour for what it is. As an Afro-Guyanese, I plead with all of us to not allow our discourse to continue to descend into this,” she said.

“All of us have to stand up for our Afro-Guyanese people and speak out against this kind of behaviour and this kind of thuggish-ness and this kind of bullying and I really think that this behaviour in itself is racist and discriminatory,” she added.