Dear Editor,
I WOULD like to address the claim that seeks to compare Guyana to an apartheid state. The number of times this notion of Guyana is either an apartheid state or heading in that direction points to an unspeakable level of ignorance that is alarming. This group of sanctimonious leaders do a severe disservice to Guyanese. It is no secret that Guyana has had racial issues, exacerbated by political soliloquies and a vote became synonymous with race and party – with no clear distinction between the two. This brand of politics is what the opposition hopes to utilise, and has no place in our progressive society.

The gravity of the issue concerning Guyana being an apartheid state is alarming and should be retired to the trenches of depraved ideology. Apartheid was a brutal system of segregation which saw persons fighting against it jailed, unjustly so, including true leaders like Nelson Mandela and Mohandas Gandhi.

These people, particularly the former, spent years locked away due to their opposition to a morally bankrupt system. The latter, working in his formative years as a lawyer, was expelled from riding the train because of his skin colour; he would then dedicate the rest of his life to protest against injustice. While it is agreed that no man should be completely idolised, their dedication toward true justice and their commitment to the fight against racism is highly admirable and pure. How then, can purveyors of misinformation, purport to represent the same? The system of apartheid ostracised coloured people from society, singly based on their race.

Where in Guyana can we find such a system? How can we, as a collective of Guyanese enjoying such profound freedom in good conscience, draw such comparisons and parallels? Has the feral lust for power overtaken the minds of this committee? How does this agenda service Guyanese, other than instilling the very system they are accusing the government of enforcing?

This agenda is anti-Guyanese and should be labelled as domestic terrorism. Attempting to sow seeds of discord is one thing, repeatedly stating is another entirely and it should not be dismissed as political insinuations, but assessed as a real threat to the peace we enjoy as a diverse people.

Yours sincerely,
Joshelle Blair