It is offensive to African Guyanese for Stabroek News to equate their fight against PPP racism as extremism 

Dear Editor:

1. The Stabroek newspaper editorial of October 8, 2023, titled “Diaspora Politics,” evinced a willfully ignorant and malicious propaganda from the autocratic PPP ethnocracy and its racist enablers pursuing ethnic supremacy in Guyana.
2. The editorial pronounced on the Washington Conference on Guyana, which has obviously traumatized the racist regime and its racist axis, without speaking to a single organizer or delegate to determine the conference’s objective, strategy or outcome. Rather, it postulated from odious rhetoric and malicious propaganda emanating from the most mendacious people in the PPP.
3. The unprecedented intellectual laziness and appalling paucity of knowledge, facts and accuracy, which characterized the editorial, is the epitome of unprofessional and reckless journalism. The concomitant disinformation was viciously unkind to readers, who were presented with its sophistry and obfuscations, which finds consonance with the PPP’s apartheid governance.
4. The editorial falsely stated that Democratic Leader in the US Congress, Leader Hakeem Jeffries, was “appointed’ Minority Leader in the House of Representatives… and that “prior to his most recent appointment, he was the Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC).”
5. Nowhere in the Caribbean region will one find editorial writing that is so uninformed and riddled with misinformation. Leader Jeffries was elected Minority Leader, not appointed. Second, he was not Chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) prior to his election as Minority Leader. He was actually Chairman of the “Democratic” Caucus in the House of Representatives. He was never Chairman of the CBC.
6. The editorial’s falsities continued. It claimed that “Mr Rickford Burke of the Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy was presumably not unmindful of the opportunity an association with him (Leader Jeffries) would present, and clearly established a relationship. The connection became apparent in the Congressman’s statements in 2021 and last year which harmonized with the position CGID was promoting.”
7. This misinformation inevitably found its way in to the editorial because the writer consumes extremist hogwash disseminated by racists. One would think that the writer would confer with me before writing about the origins of my relationship with Leader Jeffries. The truth is that Leader Jeffries and I have been friends for over 23 years – way before he entered politics. I was  honored to be part of his first political campaign. This ignorance vindicates my contention that the writer did absolutely no research.
8. The presumptuous lie that I set out to establish a friendship with Leader Jeffries because of his leadership advancements in Congress diminishes the credibility of Stabroek news; albeit it is dangerous politicking to advance the propaganda narrative of the PPP axis that only they alone should benefit from relationships with powerful people – the result of their ethnic supremacy complex which motivates their hegemony.
9. The editorial endorsed the regime’s subjugation, marginalization and racial discrimination of African Guyanese, by pompously asserting that “while Mr Burke is a talented lobbyist, his perspective in relation to this country’s party politics fall at the extremist end of the spectrum and are counterproductive at a minimum, if not potentially destabilising.  As it is, he will have to face a criminal charge should he return to Guyana.”
10. First, CGID and I are prepared to be destabilizing if that’s what it takes to end PPP racism. Second, it is disrespectful to African Guyanese for Stabroek news, a newspaper that is owned and managed by Indo-Guyanese, to claim that our struggle for equality, equal rights and justice, an inclusive democracy, inclusive growth and justice  for the1400 PPP phantom death squads, “extremist.”
11. Is it extremist to demand an end to blatant racial discrimination, denying blacks government contracts, condemn the Guyana Police Force for persecuting African Guyanese political enemies of the PPP, and using cybercrime laws to suppress dissent and free speech?
12. Is it extremist to condemn the bulldozing of the African Guyanese homes at Mocha, Hill Foot and other areas? Is it extremist to campaign against the unlawful seizure of African Guyanese lands, including lands acquired by an African Guyanese American, who the racist regime is blocking from building a hotel? Their objective is denying Blacks from acquiring wealth.
13. it extremists to condemn the dismissal of thousands of black citizens, and Bharrat Jagdeo’s attempt to destroy the character and professional reputation of black professionals like Colvin Heath London, who committed no wrongdoing?
14. It is contemptuous and physiologically abusive for Stabroek news to label the African Guyanese fight against racism “extremism.” CGID is an American organization, not a Guyanese organization. We conform to US laws, and not the double standards by racists, who make it “taboo” to expose their racism. We will dismantle their defense mechanisms and speak to power. In the instant contention, Stabroek news sounds exactly like South African whites who called African Black freedom fighters terrorists.
15. The editor’s audacious claim that if Mr Jeffries, who as an African American understands the struggle against racism, now sounds less like Mr Burke, and more like Ambassador Lynch, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, it is because he now has “wider access to information, “is wild speculation and an insult to Congressman and his staff.
16. How dare some simpleton of a writer suggest that the second most powerful African American politician in America is ignorant, and must first speak like white civil servants to sound informed to the PPP racist axis? The effrontery and malicious conceit of the writer is palpable! Again, the editorial demonstrated consonance with the racist PPP axis. Suffice to say it is a grave mistake to conflate diplomacy with convictions where leader Jeffries is concerned.
17. Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Ambassador Lynch who called for inclusion and inclusive growth, are executive branch officials who practice American diplomacy. Leader Jeffries and Members of Congress Yvette Clarke, Hank Johnson and Albio Sires, who called for an end to discrimination, directly represent the voices of their constituents. They speak truth to power, not nice words to appease racist governments.
18. It is disgraceful for the editor to endorse the PPP regime’s propaganda that I “will have to face a criminal charge should he return to Guyana for the views I express on my talk show.” It is disgraceful for a newspaper to endorse such an assault on free speech in America. I cannot be charged with a crime in Guyana for exercising my rights under the US constitution. The Guyana Police Force (GPF) has no jurisdiction over my speech. Stabroek’s malicious alignment with these racists is evident in this foolish, uninformed assertion.
19. Moreover, the Attorney General of Guyana wrote the US government in an effort to silence me, and the Justice Department rejected his allegations. Furthermore, the US law enforcement has intelligence confirming that the GPF wanted bulletins for me emanated out of a conspiracy between Bharrat Jagdeo, the Attorney General, Police Commissioner and Crime Chief.
20. They allegedly fabricated the allegations that I violated Guyana’s Cybercrime laws because they thought that they can persuade the US government to “extradite” me to Guyana, to be killed. This matter is still under FBI investigation. It is therefore shocking that Stabroek news would promote such despicable transnational repression crimes by the racist government they support.
21. Bharrat Jagdeo, threatened attendees of the Washington Conference on Guyana, including Members of the US Congress. At every press conference he makes the nastiest, most incendiary, racist, defamatory remarks about African Guyanese leaders and calls them “criminals.” Stabroek News is silent on his racist extremism, but finds it convenient to label the Black citizens who respond to him as extremist. I call on all African Guyanese to strongly repudiate  this racist and hostile contention.
22. In conclusion let me educate Stabroek news that the vast majority of African Guyanese and other non PPP supporters embrace the positions CGID and I have taken regarding the PPP government ‘s discrimination against Blacks. We are therefore undaunted by their racist labels.
23. I submit that neither Stabroek news nor the PPP government, want African Guyanese to start behaving like “extremists.” Because they can be assured that there will be justice for the death squad murders and PPP racial discrimination will end instantly.
24. I will continue to boldly speak truth to power and work to dismantle the PPP racism in Guyana. Stabroek News should join this noble cause, and stop being an apologist for racists.

Yours truly,

Rickford Burke
President
Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID)