Dear Editor,

IN the Kaieteur News of June 7, 2023, Mr. Hamilton Green wrote a letter in response to Minister Oneidge Walrond’s piece in which she denounced the misrepresentation of the racial issue in Guyana made by Mr. Nigel Hughes and Darren Wade to a UN body.

In the process, Mr. Green once again went on a mission of misrepresentation, distortions, and downright falsification of our history. Some of these issues were previously raised by Mr. Green and debunked, but he continues to use the old tactic of repeating the same fabrications in the hope that the gullible would believe them.

That shows that Mr. Green’s objective is to deliberately mislead people.

In his letter, he once more raised his pet subject “Apan Jaat” suggesting that the PPP used this as a tool of mobilisation. This is absolutely untrue. The term was used against the PPP in 1953 elections by Daniel P. Debedin who carried the line that Dr. Cheddi Jagan had sold out to Mr. Burnham and the black people. Debedin used the term “Apan Jaat” to call Indian Guyanese to vote for him.

During those elections the PPP was in a pincer attack. Mr. Burnham was being attacked by the League of Coloured People. He was accused of selling out black people to the Indian Cheddi Jagan. Mr. Green never mentions this. “Apan Jaat” was later taken up by the PNC in their efforts to divide the working people in its attack on the PPP. Ms. Jane Sillery captured that very well in her doctoral thesis in which she pointed out that the PNC was using reverse racism to instigate black people. The tactic was to accuse the PPP of being pro-Indian by calling it a “Rice Government” a “coolie government” and falsely accusing it of calling for “Apan Jaat”.

The reality is (and was) that the PPP never used those slogans. It always stood for unity of the people. This has been a constant from Jagan to Jagdeo.

Green who was an active participant in the PNC X13 racist plan to attack the PPP has not changed. What a pity!

Mr. Green has descended into the worst from of mischief making. I get the impression that he is trying to replay the old tactic which the PNC used in 1960s. Here he came with the bald-faced lie that after the 1961 elections “PPP had made arrangements to have thousands of Indians from the State of Kerala of India to be brought to settle in Guyana…” It is unfortunate that Green continues to propagate this untruth. After all, this was debunked at the time by the PPP, the then British Governor, and the Indian Government representative who was stationed in Trinidad. Therefore, it is clear that Mr. Green’s sole intention in repeating this nonsense today is to stem the tide of what appears to be a growing unity of our people once more. This is an even greater pity Mr. Green!

Such bare face lies is an old tactic of the PNC. During the 1960s while it whipped up anti-communism, the PNC and its leader Forbes Burnham made the ridiculous and false charge that 1,000 Cubans were in British Guiana to fight for the PPP. This was and is one of the shameful pages of the PNCs history!

He then moved on for the umpteenth time to interpret the PPP’s attitude to the West Indian Federation as being racial. In a previous missive I had pointed out that the PPP’s policy on the Federation was worked out in 1950 when Mr. Burnham was chairman of the PPP. It was the same position of the Caribbean Congress of Labour (Mr. Green here implies that Burnham was anti-Black).

Federation was opposed by the colonial people in Africa where the British tried to impose it as well. It was also opposed by the masses of the Caribbean and caused changes in governments in Belize and Jamaica.

The PPPs position was that the minimum conditions for joining the Federation was not present. The PPP was saying that at least the colonies should have internal self-government. Failing that, the Federation could only be a glorified crown colony. This was the same position taken by African leaders who resisted colonial attempt at Federation.

Green while he sometimes tries to portray an anti-colonial facade remains colonial in his mentality continuing to pursue the racist policy of colonial Britain long after Britain itself has moved away from it.

Green is also putting history on its head in saying that the PPP opposed self-help. Indeed, the opposite is true. The PPP used self-help and co-ops to build hundreds of projects in the then British Guiana. Schools, health centres and houses were built by self-help from 1957 to 1964. This was because the British and later the Americans were refusing to grant loans for many developmental projects. That forced the PPP to rely on self-help etc.

Indeed in 1958, Mr. Burnham and Andrew Jackson of the PNC joined W.O. R. Kendall to vote in the Legislative Council against giving support for the PPP’s team of Cheddi Jagan and Edward Beharry who were going to the UK, Europe and US to raise funds to finance British Guiana’s Developmental Plan. Check the records Green! It was the PNC that opposed those developmental projects. Indeed, so successful were co-ops under the PPP that the PNC put in as part of the official name of our country.

Like so many other things co-ops and self-help failed under the PNC because of the undemocratic nature of that regime. Under the PNC co-ops were used as vehicles for PNC cohorts to get rich quick. Remember Greenland Co-op Mr. Green?

On the question of National Service, let me say from the outset that the PPP opposed it as a condition for admittance to the University of Guyana. It was in fact a racist move to push Indian Guyanese in general and Indian Guyanese women in particular, out of UG.

The PPP pointed out that National Service could take another form and take into account the mores and customs of Indian women. Forcing them into camps was tantamount to expelling them from UG. Indeed, as soon as National Service was implemented more than 100 Indian women withdrew from the university.

Incidentally, it is more than just a passing coincidence that National Service was thought up as a scheme after the PYO had a resounding victory at the student council elections in 1974. That embarrassed the PNC which in 1973 boasted of a “break through” (by then the only thing they broke through were the ballot boxes of 1968 & 1973 elections).

The PPP was asking for a change of form of National Service so that no one would have been left out.

In his letter Mr. Green went on to say that the PPP was opposed to CARIFESTA in 1972. Knowing that he did not have any proof to substantiate his charges he resorted to saying that “…the PPP activists worked behind the scenes to keep Indo-Guyanese away…”

It is true that the PPP had some critical remarks of the PNC and CARIFESTA. However, these were more from a philosophical/ideological position. At a press conference in August 1972 Dr. Jagan extended a warm welcome to the overseas visitors. He said, “we in the PPP hope that their stay will be pleasant in our beautiful country and most enjoyable among our hospitable people.”

He made comments about the content and form of culture and did say that culture could not be fully developed under imperialist/neo-colonial rule. However, he did not call for a boycott.

A call for boycott came from the Guyanese Council of Indian Organisations (GCIO). In a release published on September 17, 1972, the GCIO “…reminded Guyanese that while it was never against the principle of CARIFESTA, it was forced to make the boycott call because of government’s arrogant seizure of the Indian Immigration Fund and its failure to involve the true cultural representatives in the planning of the programme…” – those are the facts.

On the issue of Security Forces, it is true that the PPP called for ethnic balance of our security forces. This call in my view is still valid, particularly at a time when Green and the PNC among others, continue to propagate racism in our country.

In 1965 when the ICJ met we had just come out of a period when the PNC instigated racism, supported and directed by the British. It saw Indian Guyanese being attacked, robbed, raped and even murdered in the presence of police officers. Indeed, at Mahaicony police officers were involved in attacks against Indians.

Let me also state that the ICJ recommended to the PNC government that the security forces be balanced. That was never done. Instead, Indian officers were dismissed and forced out of the service. Remember Col. Sattaur, Assad Ishoof and many others Mr. Green!

Green went on to say that Indians did not want to join the security forces. That is a gross falsehood. Indian Guyanese were kept out of the force by the British at first. They used all kinds of means to accomplish this. These included height, size of chest etc.

In fact in the 1960s Minister of Home Affairs Janet Jagan found that two different exams were prepared for entry into the police force. In African dominated communities, the exams was very easy to pass. In Indian dominated areas it was almost impossible for even someone in possession of five subjects GCE ‘O’ level to pass. All these measures were used to keep Indians out of the Police Force.

He then moved to again make the false charge that the location of the Berbice Bridge was done to disadvantage Afro-Guyanese in New Amsterdam etc. That was another lie that the PNC racists persist in.

Vice President Jagdeo only recently dealt with this issue at a press conference when he said that it was constructed on the present site due to the best technical advice given to the government while he was president. I can testify to that having been present at one of the presentations of the technical team, I believe it was a French group.

Finally, in his determination to promote racism Mr. Green once again took Dr. Jagan’s remarks totally out of context in relation to the position of black people. Mr. Green said that Dr. Jagan said that Afro Guyanese were at the bottom of the ladder.

Firstly Dr. Jagan never mentioned “Afro Guyanese”. He was referring to the American opposition to his government of 1961-1964 period. He was making the point that the American opposition to the PPP was more political than racial because it is known that in the United States during the 1960s Blacks were at the bottom of the social ladder.

Hamilton Green is not interested in context. He is hell bent on dividing our people.

At this stage of his life Hamilton Green could play a very important role for the good health of our country by coming out with the truth. Unfortunately, he has chosen to practice the politics of lies and hate. So, so sad!

Sincerely,

Donald Ramotar
Former President