The PNCR condemns the actions of the PPP government in using this year’s Emancipation Day observance to seek to divide and dishonor the Afro-Guyanese community and to undermine its efforts at self-determination, self-expression, and self-organization. The government’s intention to sponsor a free event on Emancipation Day on Malteenoes Sports Club ground to clash and compete with the traditional ACDA event directly across in the National Park reeks of the PPP’s disregard for Afro-Guyanese in the land of their birth.
For the last 31 years, the African Cultural & Development Association (ACDA) has organized the Emancipation Day event. It is now both national in its significance and nationally-recognized as such. But the event has now become the latest victim of the PPP’s obsession to dominate, dictate, and control every space in Guyana.
Instead of using the country’s oil blessings to promote the dignity and prosperity of all Guyanese regardless of political affiliation, social status, and race and ethnicity, the PPP has opted instead to engage in the politics of division, deprivation, and dependency. But the PPP is foolhardy to believe there is political gain in undermining or bypassing genuine Afro-Guyanese institutions and forms of self-expression. It is likewise foolhardy to believe there is political gain in forcing several AfroGuyanese into acts of servitude and self-humiliation so that they can receive what is rightfully theirs as citizens. The PNCR is confident that, as history has shown, the pride and dignity of people will eventually win out.
We call on all decent-minded Guyanese to continue to condemn and reject these acts by the PPP that destabilize national unity, counteract ethnic harmony, and the weaken the social contract between citizens and their government. As the next government, we will end these vile practices. It is time for a new Guyana where all citizens and groups are respected regardless of their race/ethnicity, social standing, and political affiliation.
