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Dear editor,
I add my voice to the list of observers who insist that descendants of enslaved Africans in Guyana must have access to equal rights and justice in this country. The conspicuous allocation of the nation’s patrimony to foreigners, mixed Portuguese and East Indian men can no longer be debated. Poor East Indians do not have it easy in this land either but if they choose to remain quiet out of ethnic loyalty, then they will get what they get when the administration is good and ready to give it to them.
Editor, I am an African man, my children are Africans and their children will be Africans. For 200 yrs, our kidnapped ancestors were brutalized, raped, murdered and disregarded at the mercy of colonists. The price for our equal access and justice today has already been paid by our ancestors.
A government–whatever the race of the leaders, should be mature enough to lead for all the people. I do not think the visionless and brutal faction of the PPP that endorses pettiness, discrimination, and injustice against descendants of enslaved Africans understand that now, people have something to actually fight for. The nation has wealth and we should all share in it. African people whose ancestors often paid the ultimate price for their freedom will not sit by and watch the nation’s patrimony be reallocated to PPP cronies and foreign companies.
African people must demand fairness–in justice, in land allocation, in respect for contracts signed under the APNU-AFC government, in allocation of government contracts, in any allocation that has to do with assets of the state. Editor, African people are the majority in the public service. They contribute significantly to the tax base, unlike many of the ‘entrepreneurs’ who make millions under the table and contribute nothing but VAT (to which everyone contributes) to the tax base.
In 2022, descendants of African people should not have to beg for equal access and justice. The PPP will do well to reassess this crass strategy of ethnic domination. No good will come of it.
