There has been a lot of talk from the government side that the government is for all the people, regardless of race, politics, and religion.
The statement sounds nice but it is not true. Many on the government side do target people who are not in support of the government or the ruling party.
It is apposite to revisit the comment by Member of Parliament Amanza Walton-Desir that sparked a brouhaha. It brought out the cockroaches from the woodwork and it caused many people to shed their disguise.
To this day one can still hear comments about Ms. Walton-Desir being racist and that she should be called on to resign as a Member of Parliament. The presumption is that no person in Parliament has even made a racist comment.
Ms. Walton-Desir, during a televised programme, said that the supporters of the People’s Progressive Party are mentally lazy. Try as I might I cannot connect that statement to East Indian people. The only way that could be connected is if the PPP contends that all its supporters are East Indian.
If that is the case then people would be hard-pressed to explain the appearance of some of the Ministers or Members of Parliament on the government side.
If the truth be told, the people who support the PPP are looking for anything to attack their opponents. How can one explain the numerous arrests of former officials and their incarceration?
Christopher Jones has been arrested and charged more times than some common criminal. This needs to be explained. The latest charge had to with leading an illegal procession. He should be able to defend himself in court.
Ms. Walton-Desir was at pains to explain her comments in the face of the noise that came from the people who decided that she had insulted people of Indian ancestry. She gave examples of the things that led to the comment. And to my surprise, some of the Black members and supporters of the PPP have said nothing.
Perhaps they have learnt to remain silent if the party takes a position with which these people do not agree. Sadly, this is now not unique to Guyana. The Republican Party is going gung ho after Liz Cheney. House Republicans voted on Wednesday to replace her as conference chair.
Cheney’s refusal to embrace Trump’s election lies, and her rebukes of his role in the US Capitol insurrection, has highlighted a tumultuous rift in a Republican Party.
And that is how life is when there are dictators. The question of free speech means nothing. During the tenure of the coalition government people wrote and said just about anything without fear. That is no longer the case. People claim that they are afraid to speak for fear of victimization.
The other day in court, it transpired that the man on trial, Grey Boy, said that he was approached to kill Mark Benschop. The only reason for such an approach was that Benschop was critical of the PPP. Courtney Crum-Ewing was killed in Diamond for rallying opposition to the PPP.
And so we return to the comment by Ms. Walton-Desir. She happens to be Black and critical of the PPP. That seems to be the equivalent of poking a marabunta nest.
When people dub the PNCR as a Black party and the PPP as an Indian party regardless of what the individual parties say the impression by the people remains.
To rise up against Ms. Walton-Desir and to accuse her of racism and attack people of Indian ancestry is to embrace the fact that the PPP is an Indian party.
I have seen some harsh comments against people in the coalition. Roshan Khan, a man who made the pilgrimage to Mecca and calls himself Haji, referred to Joe Harman as kokobay face. He was equally harsh in his criticism of Ms. Walton-Desir.
This was a man who once sat on the Ethnic Relations Commission, who called people to mediate in the face of perceived conflict.
For a country that is supposed to be of one people, there is a lot wrong and these wrongs are being perpetuated by the national leaders and some others in the society.
How can anyone explain that the nurses at Linden have been protesting for over two months to resolve an issue and nothing has been done by the government?
Instead, the government has entrenched the source of the nurses’ protest. However, the sugar workers protested for no more than four days and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo stepped in and gave them what they wanted.
Animal Farm by Eric Arthur Blair who wrote under the pseudonym, George Orwell, had it right. All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.
