– makes complaint to ERC
THE Indian Arrival Committee (IAC) has taken issue on comments made by the Alliance For Change (AFC) during a political meeting held at Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice, on Saturday, January 15, 2011.

These comments were noted on the website, demerarawaves.com on Sunday, January 16, 2011.  The matter was brought to the attention of the Ethnic Relations Commission by way of letter dated 17th of this month and addressed to the ERC Chairman, Bishop Juan Edghill.

In that letter the IAC states that it is appalled at the level of irresponsibility shown by the AFC, which reportedly appealed to Guyanese East Indians to stop being fearful of African Guyanese, which the IAC perceives as a deliberate attempt to incite and create strife between the two principal ethnic groups of this country, which can result in dire consequences in an election year.

The letter, which was signed by Coordinator/Secretary of the
IAC,  Maria Rasheed, condemned what the organization termed, “…this gross and outrageous insult to people of Indo-Guyanese origin and views the comments as a deliberate attempt to unravel the harmony that exists among Guyanese of all ethnicities and which dates back as far as 1838.”
Urging the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) to immediately investigate what the organization considers dangerous messages of the AFC, Ms Rasheed further wrote that the IAC believes that the AFC has unwisely and inaccurately portrayed the entire ethnic group, to which its presidential candidate belongs, as being cowardly as it attempts to skewer ethnic relations with the hope of enhancing that Party’s political ambitions. According to the letter, the IAC sees “…these inflammatory comments by the AFC as deliberately making one ethnic group inferior to another. This is counter to the Constitution of Guyana, which guarantees freedom and equality to all.”
Continuing, the IAC noted that the AFC should be reminded that “…the pages of Guyana’s history are filled with the proliferation of stability that has existed, and continues to exist among Indo and Afro Guyanese”, further stating that history has shown that East Indian indentured labourers, very early during the history of Indentureship, strongly resisted the attempts of the white plantocracy to oppress them as they laboured in canefields, refuting the AFC inference of cowardice in Indo-Guyanese.
Stressing the historical cooperation between the two major races in Guyana, the IAC recalled that on several occasions in the struggle against the plantocracy, Indians were aided by African co-workers, and drew attention to the fact that the late Dr. Walter Rodney has written on the way East Indians and African workers confronted the colonial authorities in the strike in 1905, which resulted in many being killed, among other examples of a united front put up by the two races against oppressive forces, which resulted in the late Dr. Cheddi Jagan being elected to the National Assembly in 1947, based largely on the unity of East Indians and African Guyanese when he contested the East Coast constituency.
The IAC also reminded the AFC of “…the valiant efforts made by the late Dr. Cheddi Jagan, who led the struggles against the colonial masters for a free Guyana”, whereby many Guyanese of various ethnicities, including those of African descent, joined Dr. Jagan in his quest for a liberated Guyana – a harmonious relationship that resulted in the overwhelming election victory of 1953.
The IAC also brought to the ERC’s attention the actions taken by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in relation to ethnic violence in Kenya. The ICC last year named six Kenyan leaders, including the Deputy Prime Minister, suspected of inciting violence that followed that country’s 2007 Elections.
Finally, the letter stated that it is the IAC’s fervent wish that the ERC will deal with this matter expeditiously in an effort to prevent any attempts to ignite ethnic passions and to preserve the harmonious relations that prevail. “The IAC, through the ERC, calls on all Guyanese to reject the AFC’s utterances and that of any other political party/politician that may seek to do likewise.”