Race and Politics

In the fact of criticisms from several quarters about a section of his remarks in his Arrival Day Message that critics say gave the impression that Africans came to Guyana in the quest for a good life, President Irfaan Ali last night expressed regret  “To my fellow Guyanese, who felt offended by the way in which the language was structured, ...

Attorney General Anil Nandlall has indicated that utterances by opposition lawmaker, Amanza Walton-Desir violate Guyana’s laws. “Racial discrimination is a wrong. It is an illegal act. It is outlawed by the most Supreme Law of our country,” he said. Mr. Nandlall said Guyana’s Constitution protects citizens against racial discrimination. “Racial discrimination is something that the constitution protects Guyanese from as ...

Opposition APNU+AFC parliamentarian Amanza Walton-Desir said she told police that she feared City businessman Roshan Khan’s call for her to be “marked” because she said the support-base of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) was “mentally lazy people.” But Mr. Khan later appeared on YouTube, defending his call for her to be “marked”, saying he was merely urging Indo-Guyanese to ignore ...

President Irfaan Ali on Thursday  said he boycotted this week’s first-ever National Conversation because the government was not involved in planning the event and selecting the panelists, concerns about decision-making and silence by that constitutional body about the five-month long political crisis over the elections. “Every single stakeholder in Guyana agrees that democracy was under threat but the ERC did ...

Political Scientists Dr. Henry Jeffrey and David Hinds on Tuesday said the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) has failed to resolve racial and ethnic problems in Guyana because politicians are pushing race as a means of getting power, but a top official of the International Decade of People of African Descent-Guyana (IDPADA-G) tabled several recommendations for that constitutional body. Speaking on ...

As Guyana observes Eid-ul-Adha today (Friday) Guyanese leaders, political and religious organizations have all come together to call for greater unity, peace and togetherness among Guyanese, especially in light of the tense political situation. President David Granger has called for greater harmony among all Guyanese. “I pray that the outpouring of charity and concern for others, which is characteristic of Eid-ul-Adha, will ...

by GHK Lall Though I had warned to manage expectations, I still harbored faint hopes that norms would prevail, that self-respect would take priority, and that whatever processes are agreed upon and employed would be the end of the matter. My lingering strand of optimism was that all of this would lead to the final stop in this most grueling, ...

By Paul Sanders Guyana 2020: Can we all get along? Two people. Two narratives. Same agenda. So you’d think they should be okay, right? Wrong. These people are long time adversaries. And, again, as usual, they are at cross purposes. This rendezvous is a festival of Indo and Afro Guyanese refining and mastering the art of bawling in high intensive ...

by GHK Lall I look back this first time at Elections 2020 and cringe that some of the things that I had identified have come to pass. I would have preferred to be embarrassingly wrong on all counts; it turns out that I was closer to the reality than I could have imagined. First, several times late last year and ...

by Surendra Dhanpaul The recently-concluded election in Guyana has drawn attention from almost every corner of the world. However, the fundamental problem of racism does not seem to get the attention it deserves. Racism in Guyana is dormant and resurrects every election cycle. It is a social problem that plagues, not only Guyana, but the world. In this opinion column, ...