Dear Editor,
President Jagdeo was reported in the Guyana Times (September 2) as taking a strong position against those whom he referred to as “bigoted academics.” The President was at the time addressing Guyana Scholarship students home on holiday. He warned the students about bigoted academics “living with bitterness in their hearts because of the differences that were once part of our history.” The President obviously knows the meaning of “bigoted.” He is equating “bitterness” with bigotry. But that’s not the main point I wish to make. As a citizen the President has a right to call it as he sees it. The charge of racial bigotry is a serious one and should not be taken lightly. The President should report those academics to the ERC. But instead he uses the high platform of his office to call others bigots.
The President didn’t call names so I don’t know for sure if he includes me in that category. But given my outspokenness on his Buxton misadventure, I have good reason to believe I am the chief culprit. Suffice to say that Africans are always called bigots whenever they dare to stand up in defence of their collective dignity. So I am not moved. I recall Dr Jagan and the PPP in a petition to the United Nations in the early 1960s complaining that Indians were doubly oppressed in Guyana – by class and by race. Dr Jagan would return to the same theme in 1988 at a GOPIO conference when he described Indians as second-class citizens in Guyana. He grounded his analysis and conclusions in Guyana’s history. Would the president say Dr Jagan was “bigoted?”
I must make two observations. First, I want to remind the President that I was explicit and deliberate when in my last letter to the press, I stated categorically that I did not believe that what I saw as his encouragement of mendicancy among Buxtonians was driven by any racist intent. I don’t think he is a bigoted president or person, even if he may be bitter because of past differences in our history. Second, I wish to remind the President that he has hauled a private citizen before the courts for allegedly accusing him and his administration of bigoted policies against African Guyanese.
Is it a case of might is right?
Yours faithfully,
David Hinds
