Dear Editor,

I read an ad on social media promoting a rally for August 21 in Georgetown headlined: `Resisting the emerging apartheid state’. I am supportive of peaceful protests and rallies and those who speak out against injustice, racism, and apartheid rule. I am on the side of those who advocate for equality and fairness. Almost every multi-ethnic country, including USA, UK, Canada, has witnessed aspects of discrimination – some government promoted and others the result of peoples’ cultural and social behaviour. There is no evidence to substantiate a claim that the current government in Guyana and during its previous tenures ever practice or condone racial discrimination. One of the principal founders of the PPP, Dr. Cheddi Jagan, would have none of it, and he fought against apartheid at a time when the Burnham regime was in bed with racists. In fact, at a conference in New York in 1989, Dr. Jagan referred to the then regime in Guyana as apartheid in nature. Bharrat Jagdeo, during his tenure as President and President Irfaan Ali did not and have not practised or condoned racism and they most certainly have not presided over any apartheid system. They were (are) democratically-elected at a time when Indians have not been a majority of the population. They could only have gotten majority by winning over support from other ethnic groups which eliminates any possibility of racist or apartheid governance.

I studied apartheid and fought against it and racism in South Africa, USA, and Burnham Guyana. ‘An emerging apartheid state in Guyana’? Are the brains of the organisers and listed speakers of the rally working smartly? Are they not concerned about the embarrassment of the heading of the rally? Mr. Floyd Haynes is wise to dissociate from such a rally and to condemn the term used to describe it.

The term apartheid is misused in the context of post-1992 Guyana. Guyana was an apartheid State post-independence through October 1992 during which time there was a racist minority authoritarian regime modelled along the lines of the apartheid regime in South Africa where apartheid was institutionalised.

Guyana held its first democratic elections in October 1992. And since then, the country has come a long way from the institutionalised racism it inherited (White domination during colonial rule) and Burnhamite governance (1965 onwards) which was apartheid in nature.

Those of us who studied sociology or political science would understand the concept of apartheid rule. Apartheid was the term given to the particular racial-social ideology developed in South Africa (and Namibia) and to some extent in Rhodesia. It was characterised by segregation and racial hatred. Apartheid led to the political, social, and economic discrimination of people not in government such as the Africans, Coloured (mixed race), and Indians by the minority dominant White regime.

Burnham led a minority regime in Guyana and imported aspects of apartheid rule and institutionalised it in Guyana during his reign and it continued until his successor, Desmond Hoyte, attempted to dismantle it from 1990. De facto apartheid was practised against Indians, Whites, Amerindians, and Mixed races not dissimilar from how the White minority regime in South Africa used it de jure and de facto against Africans, Indians, and Mixed in South Africa. Under Burnham and Hoyte, the State acquired over 80 per cent of the economy and placed it in the hands of party supporters of one race. Token hand outs were given to a handful of other races that supported the system similar to what took place in South Africa. On that note, one aspect of the apartheid system was the “Pass Book” that granted privileges to non-whites. Burnham established the “PNC card” that was a requirement for government jobs, perks, and privileges.  Without the card, people who looked like me could not find employment or access to scarce items and the tax clearance certificate to exit the country. Have the organisers of the August 21 rally forgot that?

When one examines governance and employment in Guyana, the government service, police, army, teaching, nursing, UG student body, Bank of Guyana, GECOM, and other State institutions, they are predominantly African in composition before and after independence till now. An African was President in 1997 during the PPP tenure in office succeeding Dr. Jagan. An African was Prime Minister during PPP rule from 1992 to 2015. And an African has been Prime Minister from August 2020 till now. The current government is reflective of the ethnic composition of the population.  Indians dominate in law, medicine, engineering, mining, fishing, and the private sector in general. Indians are entrepreneurial and succeed in business because of their own standing. They didn’t receive handouts from the State that was controlled by Burnham and Hoyte who favoured their own supporters for the combined 28 years they ruled. In fact, Indians have been victims of apartheid rule.

The time has come when you must call a spade a spade. They have been on the receiving end.  Look at the mauling of the young Indian male and his girlfriend last week in Georgetown in the presence of onlookers and police. Indians were brutalised at Mon Repos in July. They were beaten in Agricola and West Berbice. Since the time of indentureship, Indians have been victims. The Whites employed others as security and to beat Indian who dissented against the indentured slave system.

As Blacks and Indians did in South Africa, Indian Guyanese toiled, produced rice and sugar and food for all of the nation. But they are not appreciated. When it comes to upheaval, they are at the receiving end – beaten and robbed, cars stolen, vehicles set on fire, houses and stalls destroyed, shops looted, some Indians killed, females raped and more.

Indians were displaced (driven out) from African-dominated communities like Buxton, Wismar, McKenzie, BV, among others, and forced into squalid inhabitable conditions in squatter communities such as Montrose, Mon Repos North, etc. What is there more apartheid than suffering that kind of humiliation from militants? Has any of the organisers of the Aug 21 rally ever condemn such apartheid acts?

Several individuals (Indians and Blacks) fought against apartheid in South Africa and Guyana over the decades. That era produced a number of notable figures. Among them were Blacks, Whites, and Indians including Nelson Mandela, Ahmed Khatrada, Walter Sisulu, Joe Slovo, Chris Hani, Ismail Ibrahim, Fathima Meer and Oliver Tambo, among others. In Guyana, there were Rupert Roopnarine, Walter Rodney, Eusi Kwayana, Cheddi Jagan, Moses Bhagwan, among others. In New York, several of us Indians, Blacks, and Mixed fought against the racist system. I was in the forefront of that struggle against racism and joined several protests against apartheid in South Africa, Namibia and Rhodesia. During my tenure as an elected student leader, I piloted motions to authorise funding through the student government for protest movements in New York.
How would the organisers of the August rally feel if a group is formed titled “In defense of Indian rights” and make same set of statements. Would it not be destructive of Guyana?

Yours sincerely,
By Vishnu Bisram