The US Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah Ann Lynch knows that Guyanese observers hang onto her every word to get a sense of the US position towards what obtains in Guyana. So it was by no coincidence that she referred to; at multiple times during her conversation with Benjamin Gedan from the Plaza Central podcast, ‘marginalized groups’ in Guyana and specifically named, “…Afro-Guyanese, women, persons with disabilities…to make sure all Guyanese benefit from this new day.” The ambassador went on to state that, “…there are many challenges and two key ones are inclusion and the potential for corruption…” The United States government, perhaps more than any other country in the western hemisphere, has a deep understanding of racism and bias and its debilitating effects on a tiny, soon to be wealthy, country like Guyana.
It is widely understood that “Power concedes nothing without a demand…” and that oppressed people will not suffer in silence indefinitely. NY Congressman Hakeem Jeffries and NY Attorney General Letitia James have also issued calls for an end to racism and injustice in Guyana. It is no accident that the United States has all but written in the sky above Guyana, about its disgust with the racism and bias in general, to which marginalized groups continually suffer in Guyana, but rather than commit to analyze and change the situation, Guyanese citizens are subjected to a weekly ‘horse and pony’ show, produced by the Guyana government and replete with visits to Afro-Guyanese communities, strong denials from party loyalists in letters to editors, a national propaganda push on the idiotic and failing “One Guyana ” line and a public parade of the Afro-Guyanese ministers who themselves navigate in fear and hold no real power or influence in the government of Guyana.
Another issue is that most Guyanese do not seem to understand the critical distinction between prejudice and racism. Both of these terms have to do with bias against others, but racism includes the power to disenfranchise, the power to act against those we dislike, and that is exactly what obtains in Guyana.
The US and all foreign investors are concerned about the obvious signs of the consolidation of economic activity, wealth and power by one small group of men of a particular ethnicity. Racism and bias brings instability and instability creates risk for investors. Foreign investors will come and speculate but they won’t put at risk their stockholder’s wealth in an environment fraught with political and contract risk. VP Jagdeo, clearly warned investors that he wouldn’t recognize any contracts signed by foreign investors and the coalition government after 2020. He also led the charge to unwind many of these contractual agreements. Investors read these things. What if the coalition decides to take that same position? Investors google Guyana, they know our story. Foreign investors are not stupid.
The PPP have a history of pushing ethnic hegemony. During the early 2000s, they sent no Afro Guyanese ambassadors to represent our great nation, not one. Over the years, they have set out to deliberately enrich their cronies using Guyana’s resources–land, gold, diamonds, now oil, and they intentionally and routinely undermine African Guyanese managed businesses and civil society organizations. They have even resorted to stealing proposals and replicating ideas. The PPP have also used state agencies to ‘investigate’, penalize and make it more difficult for AfroGuyanese to do business.
Clearly the PPP and their cronies are not confident in their own abilities to be successful in a competitive marketplace of ideas and opportunities, so they cheat and lie and abuse and practice nepotism and implant their square pegged cronies into round holes in which they have neither the capacity nor ability to execute, resulting in massive mediocrity across the country.
This bias results in the opposite of development, a fact with which all Guyanese citizens, even their supporters who know the truth in their hearts but dare not utter the words, must live. They have made Guyana unattractive for investors and a living hell for marginalized ‘others’.
