Dear Editor,

GUYANA is the richest country in CARICOM and with massive oil resources, we can all live ever happily after, if we unite as a nation and realise our motto of “One People, One Nation, One Destiny.” Invoking race and racism is self-destructive and hurts us all. Getting millions of dollars from the government for your cause and turning around and cussing them out as “apartheid” is ungrateful and not very smart.

The recent letter by Attorney-General Nandlall, “Forum on ‘emerging apartheid’ is a travesty, breach of the Constitution,” (SN, August 20, 2022) has roundly criticised the apparent pro-PNC Cuffy 250 group, a member organisation of the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly-Guyana (IDPADA-G).

The Attorney-General said the conference framed as “Resisting the Emerging Apartheid State’’ is unfounded “racist brew,” which may be encouraging racial hostility and violating the Constitution and other laws. Until the VP mentioned that race-based groups were getting hundreds of millions in special grants, we did not know such grants were available to all Guyanese race-focused groups. Truth be told, the PPP Government makes a valiant effort to ensure its programmes serve diverse populations. They have visited communities across the political spectrum. GOAL scholarships, house lots and homes, the various cash grants to all, hampers, etc. are fairly distributed across all communities. To use the term “emerging apartheid” is not only malicious, vexatious and mischievous, it is outright dishonest, and fails to recognise any good efforts and areas of progress of the PPP Government. This victimhood approach by Cuffy 250 does not serve their communities well.

Creating a myth that the country is moving to apartheid does great disservice to the international reputation of the country. We shoot ourselves in the foot when we do that. That is anti-nationalist, not simply anti-PPP. Cuffy 250 and its associates that use the same playbook, must abandon such a losing strategy. A hole in the boat is a hole in the whole boat. If the boat leaks, we all go down.

Perhaps, Mr. Floyd Haynes who was slated to be a speaker at the Conference should attend and explain that he got a licence to set up a Merchant Bank in Guyana. He could have shaped the discussion in positive ways, and move the mentality from one of perpetual victimhood to one of strategising to take advantage of emerging opportunities, versus this nonsense of an “apartheid.” But Mr. Haynes apparently could not get past the framing of the conference as “emerging apartheid” – a phrase he says he completely rejects.

Previous conferences by Cuffy 250, some addressed by President Granger, were titled: “African Guyanese Revitalisation: Restoring the African Guyanese communities as spaces of Education, Culture and Economic Vitality (2014)”; “Repositioning African Guyanese for Justice, Recognition and Sustainable Development (2017)”; “Positioning African Guyanese villages and communities for the green state economy (2018)”; “State of the African Guyanese Villages Forum;” and “The Way Forward (2020).” With the PPP now in power, the theme is “Emerging Apartheid.” So, is Cuffy 250 saying under the 33 years of the PNC when the PNC took control of the “commanding heights of the economy” under co-operative socialism, our Afro communities made no progress and now suddenly we are into apartheid?

IDPADA-G and associates involved in the conference must consider whether it is a smart strategy to invoke racism, as that mostly favours the PPP. Any time our Afro groups frame issues as racial issues, it sends those crossover voters who made them win in 2015 back to their base, and helps the PPP the most. To say that Guyana is an emerging apartheid state is lower than low. Shame on the Cuffy 250 and their allies for choosing such a divisive theme!

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Jerry Jailall