Dear Editor,
Allow me to engage the ‘term paper’ submitted by the GHRA Executive Committee in the form of a letter to the editor (December 11, 2024). The claims made in the piece are universal in nature. That might sound good, but these claims are completely dehistoricized, and, therefore, do not add anything useful in understanding the complex and changing dynamics of ethnicity in Guyana.
The language game of the GHRA Executive Committee is well known and their latest deposit does not disappoint. In their term-paper sounding letter, they make numerous irresponsible arguments about disparities in access to jobs, scholarships, land etc. As usual, there is wanton disregard for empirics. But then, assuming the role of the global cosmopolitan liberal, they turn around and cynically propose that “[w]e need to prioritize the ambition to create a Guyanese identity with which all ethnic groups can identify…”
Some things will never change. Apropos, one salient fact in Guyana is that the ‘voice’ of civil society has been monopolized by a handful of anti-development insurgents who, notwithstanding their own ethnic diversity, are united in keeping ethnic antagonism alive. Their latest bid at speaking from a (pretentious) position of relative ethnic autonomy, must be dismissed as out-of-order.
Sincerely,
Dr. Randy Persaud