Race & Class

African Guyanese were Sunday night- Emancipation Day Eve- urged to agitate for a national conversation on the distribution of Guyana’s oil wealth. Attorney-at-Law Nigel Hughes and Working People’s Alliance (WPA) Executive Member David Hinds issued stirring appeals in speeches at the “Buxton Black is Beautiful Emancipation Cultural Programme”. Mr Hughes recommended that an analysis be conducted to ascertain how much ...

An Afro-Guyanese policewoman, who has accused an Indo-Guyanese lawyer of using racial slurs against her while she was on duty at his father’s residence, is seeking GY$150 million in damages for allegedly defaming her. “By reason of the publication of the said  column, the claimant has been severely injured in reputation, credit, subject to ridicule and lowered in the estimation ...

Prominent Attorney-at-Law, Roysdale Forde Thursday night came out with a ringing endorsement of Joseph Harmon for the leadership of their People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR), saying there was no place for a tribal or divisive leader. Mr. Harmon has also publicly accused the governing largely Indo-backed People’s Progressive Party (PPP) of discrimination against Afro-Guyanese. In hailing incumbent leader David Granger’s ...

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 ...

The Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) has taken three persons to court for allegedly inciting racial hatred or hostility among Guyanese, and one of them has since pleaded guilty, the commission said Thursday. “Based on the specific nature of their conduct and words, the charges against the defendants included causing ethnic/racial violence or hatred and exciting hostility or ill-will on the ...

The Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) on Wednesday launched a colouring book to help promote racial and ethnic harmony across Guyana, and already that constitutional body intends to get copies into the schools through the Ministry of Education. Titled “Harmony Colouring Book – Colour our History and Heroes” , the  26-page publication, which was authored by Commissioner Barrington Braithwaite , features ...

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 ...

Attorney-at-Law, Nigel Hughes on Monday cited the need for scientific evidence about racial discrimination and economic disempowerment, to a meaningful National Conversation on Race and Ethnic Relations. Speaking during day-1 of the  two-day virtual event, Mr. Hughes said was needed to back-up certain statements in areas such as wealth and income distribution based on race. He said such data would ...

By David Hinds Many people are sweating over the impending “constitutional crisis” on March 19. My view is that there is already a constitutional crisis—the two political titans are interpreting the constitution differently. Since constitutions by their very nature are not as explicit as other documents, this disagreement is to be expected. That is where judicial review comes in—the judicial ...