President Ali has glorious opportunity to heal wounds

In another few days Guyana will be celebrating what remains our principal holiday season, Christmas.

We have been told and believe it is a season of goodwill.

I have no doubt that the President, his advisors and others will be wishing all citizens peace.

We have seen in my lifetime the leadership and citizens of our nearest and best known big brother, the United States, show maturity when the unbelievable occurred when Barack Hussein Obama, half black, half white was sworn in to the highest constitutional office in the US.

This represented a giant step away from the Jim Crow laws and a fulfilment of my earlier aspiration that in our beloved Guyana, we will be judged not on the colour of our skin, or whether our hair is straight or woolly but by our character, morality and contribution to the general good of Guyana.

I have spent extensive periods in Texas, the deep South with one of my offspring and on no occasion did I experience racial discrimination, even though when I make this statement, friends and family members tell me, it still exists, but because of years of profiling, some Caucasians do not realize that they are still without knowing it, harbouring beliefs which are racial.

In Guyana today, the situation is different; this is so because of our experience of slavery and indentureship.

Is it that the Irfaan Ali administration seems incapable or should I say unwilling of doing the things that can heal and not peel when it comes to the two major ethnic groups in Guyana, Afro and Indo-Guyanese?

I have been told by some of President Ali’s advisors that he means well and that his intentions are noble.

I say to such persons that the road to ruin is lined with good intentions.

This season of goodwill gives the President and his advisors an opportunity to deal with just a few issues of concern to many of us who seek peace and love to all mankind.

Today the Police and Constabulary are short-staffed because the recruiting officers have been instructed to ensure ethnic balance among the new recruits.

The PPP had been in office for twenty-three years and could not achieve this latest instruction given to recruiting officers.

The Administration under Burnham, in response to the contention that Indo-Guyanese were generally smaller, agreed to reduce the height and weight requirement to join the Police and Security Forces. This is still in place.

Now the latest is that this Government has raised the bar for entry from a sound primary to a sound secondary education.

Here education is not free for all. Those with the financial resources can today obtain a sound secondary education as against those impoverished communities that have been marginalized for more than two generations.

Beyond that the excellent and erudite letter written by former Senior Police Officer, Clinton Conway, is instructive and I hope the powers that be take account of the wisdom of that letter published earlier, but here again there may be subtle racial considerations.

I hope that the President and his advisors do not accuse me of fanning flames of racism because we have seen over time in Europe, North and South America that whenever you speak up for Black People, you are deemed racist.

The Post-emancipation period produced many examples of this and we advance the question of why the children of freed slaves in Guyana never effectively advanced the case for reparation and equity more vigorously.

As we approach this season, let us all be unafraid to speak the truth, for I am persuaded that only the truth can make us free and no less a person, Martin Luther King, Jr. said “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

Let us not sweep these things under the carpet, the perception that inequity in Guyana is now grounded on race.

Good wishes from his Excellency will ring rather shallow and hollow.

This Administration with the bounty of oil money must not squander a glorious opportunity for all Guyanese to share in the God-given riches in the fields and areas in which they are comfortable and competent.

The retired sugar workers and the public servant must share equally in this bounty of oil money, to avoid the appearance of discrimination.

What is necessary is for the Government to show the maturity the Americans showed pre and post Martin Luther King, so that we can achieve that dream of truly being One Nation.

What gives us hope is that the majority of this generation of Indo and Afro-Guyanese do not wish to relive the horrors of the past, but that we can hold hands together, the Blacks, the Indos, the Mixed, the Portuguese, the Chinese, and those who defy description into the sunlight of harmony and prosperity.

Finally, Mr. President, there is enough in the Christmas kettle that you can give two hundred and fifty thousand ($250,000) dollars each for Christmas to every Policeman, Soldier, Fireman, Prison Officer, Teacher, Nurse, Health Worker and every other Public Servant, so that you bring glad tidings of comfort and joy to all in the above category. Season’s Greetings to all.

Yours faithfully,

Hamilton Green

Elder