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Dear Editor
Datadin avoids addressing need for Anti-racial Governance: Updated from my March 6, 2021 letter in Guyana Standard. My response to Datadin’s March 3, letter is even more relevant in the current political social landscape – True then and more prevalent Now!
The pronouncements by Datadin in Guyana Standard on March 3, 2021 were not initiated by him, another opinion of mine. Datadin statements displayed that he does not understand nor does not care that the action of the PPP leadership has brought us to a point ripe for conflict and clashes.
Below is an interesting extract from Datadin’s comments, where he overtly writes on behalf of the PPP in the last paragraph of his letter:
He said that he is of the firm belief that Hinds has said all he did because ”he thinks we must consult him personally. Then he will be satisfied. But it cannot work that way.”
Consultation is needed with those entities that have constituencies and support bases, such as the PNC and other organisations. The silly notion of Datadin’s that I think the PPP need not consult, is ridiculous and must have been a brain freeze moment for him.
Disenfranchisement does not only relate to votes, it is relevant to jobs, contracts, property ownership, access to capital, opportunities for the more needy and participatory consultation. Equal opportunity for all does not capture the plight of disadvantaged groups who need government support to access opportunities and improve their living conditions.
I expand herein on the belief that the current administration does not see it fit and proper to genuinely consult with those outside of their leadership hierarchy. Essentially, they consider themselves as the masters, and their subjects must accept whatever crumbs or decisions they unilaterally decide upon for their “servants”.
Two stark examples illustrate PPP/Datadin’s non-consultancy syndrome:
1, The neutering of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, among other Ministers, Agencies and Advisors, led by non-traditional PPP supporters. Status and titles for the Prime Minister and other Ministers, who have miniscule or no power to hire or to prevent hiring or prevent firing, within their Ministries, this is the sad reality.
2. Government majority discusses oil sector with opposition in Parliament; yet will have no talks with Harmon in his capacity as Opposition Leader, unless he formally recognizes the PPP administration as the Governing Administration – Ali (Demerara Waves, March 4, 2021). What malarkey!
This state of affairs is insulting and disrespectful to our slogan of One People… The statement by Malcolm X that not everyone sitting at the table is a diner, can be aptly applied here. Everyone needs to be eating.
It is an uncivil and a dehumanizing policy for elements of the PPP to embrace the belief that African-Guyanese are not competent to lead and head agencies and organizations in a successful and effective way;”” this is the crux of a complete fallacy.
It borders on a God Complex Syndrome, where one entity dictates that “the others” must accept the scraps, which if accepted, depicts the “other” as window dressing, a sponger or both, as well as a sell-out, due to the rubber stamping role they have to operate within.
This is not about MP Datadin; it is about a culture of anti-black prejudice that perpetuates a canon that some Guyanese are only fit and proper to fetch water or be disenfranchised from being treated as first class citizens of Guyana.
Several non-traditional PPP supporters from their personal experience, have informed me that this current administration is by order of magnitude and to extreme lengths; discriminated more than any previous PPP administration against African Guyanese, in both the private and public sector.
Show me some genuine economic inclusion by this governing administration at an uncompromised leadership level, and I’ll show you a flying elephant.
I have had discourse with many members of both the PNC and PPP; our exchanges were mostly private and will remain that way; however, it seems to me that “the colony in a nation” environment is being nourished with blank promises and pseudo appointments by the PPP that have to be rejected.
The dated request by the President for the Opposition Leader to grovel before him, in order for them to have a meeting, illustrates the kind of class servility traditionalized in some cultures.
It was the Mexican Emiliano Zapata who noted several times that:
“It is better to die on your feet, than to live a lifetime on your knees.”
Regards
Nigel Hinds
