Redress for racial discrimination should be sought in the courts

Dear Editor,
Many Guyanese thought that May 11, 2015 heralded the end of racism in Guyana when national elections ushered in the new coalition government just as a rather complementary set of other Guyanese had on October 5, 1992. On both these days different groups of Guyanese thought that racial discrimination, as they perceived it, was going to end.

Or was May 11th instead, like October 5th, the beginning of racism in Guyana? The coalition’s victory was secured by only a hair’s breadth. The detailed results made it clear that many Indo-Guyanese supported the PPP solidly despite a record of governance that left much to be desired. It is very likely that for this constituency in 2015, like the defeated voters in 1992, May 11th was the day when they expected racism to ‘start’. And so we are back to the idea of Guyana as a two-wheeled cart with only half the population pushing at any time leaving the cart spinning like a top in mud.

It is time we Guyanese stopped pretending that political parties alone can deal with and beat racism. We must think afresh and find an effective way of defeating the pernicious, social and economic malignancy that is racial discrimination in Guyana. We propose no less in this letter.

In Guyana there is a somewhat whimsical understanding of racial discrimination. For far too many ‘racial discrimination’ is the cause of anything bad that happens to them. Not only that, this ‘racial discrimination, is perceived to be widespread and everywhere. If you’re in a line and it’s moving slowly, it’s discrimination. If the thing runs out before you get to the top of the line, that’s discrimination. If your child is not doing well in school, it’s discrimination. If you don’t get the promotion you’re after, it’s discrimination (and indeed may well be!) If you don’t win the lotto… well perhaps no one believes that is due to ‘racial discrimination’.

In reality, however, discrimination is a quite clearly defined action that violates your human rights and is expressly forbidden by our constitution. It is a matter of law.

So first, if we want to deal with racial discrimination we must identify it and know its real nature. Thinking of it as a pervasive malevolence that is, almost by the wooliness of its definition, unmanageable gets us nowhere. As we get to know the beast more clearly we will understand how to defeat it. We must understand racial discrimination as it is defined and forbidden in our constitution and we must understand that it is the role of the law to protect us from it in the same way that it is incumbent on the law to help us enforce that and all other constitutional provisions.

It seems to us that there is one important and, we hope, redeeming feature that distinguishes racism in Guyana from its manifestation in more ideological settings like Nazi Germany, apartheid South Africa, the slave plantations in British colonies and the segregationist South in America. It does not seem to us that racism in Guyana is underpinned by the same insidious, supremacist ideology evident in those other systems. It seems to be a more everyday, carelessly learned, cultural behaviour between races in Guyana that was not born from a fundamentally divisive, supremacist theology. Guyanese racism seems more a product of poorly understood differences and if that is so there is more reason to hope that it can be successfully addressed.

Turning to the main question: what does all this imply for a strategy to deal properly with racial discrimination in Guyana? Well, ask yourself the question, when last can you remember someone being sued or prosecuted in a Guyanese court for the practice of racial discrimination? With the exception of the 2010 libel case Bharrat Jagdeo v Freddie Kissoon, Adam Harris and National Media Publishing Inc, in which allegations of racial discrimination arose as part of the libel complaint we cannot recall any such case. Is this not surprising given the widespread and pervasive perception of the practice of racial discrimination in our society?

We have reasoned that racial discrimination is defined by the law and that the judiciary is the branch of government with responsibility for enforcement of the law. So why don’t we use that obvious mechanism to seek redress? The overtly political branches of our government, the National Assembly and executive presidency may well be involved in the formulation of law but they have no explicit mandate to enforce it. More to the point they are not, by construction, obliged to be fair in their considerations of legal matters even as they uphold the law. This is in stark contrast to the judiciary. It is the judiciary that is the branch of government with an obligation to consider fairly, ie, without prejudice or party political considerations, matters before them. Our judges and courts are the constitutionally constructed mechanism through with our human rights and protection against racial discrimination, in particular, are enforced. We must use them to that end.

This then is the very essence of the solution we propose. For too long have we incorrectly and unsuccessfully conceived redress against racial discrimination in political terms with appeals to the political parties, ministers of government and the like. We must now turn away from this and instead implement and imbibe a more correct social culture where these issues are addressed to the judiciary ‒ the courts, judges and lawyers. For them their duty and obligation is clear. They must treat our complaints fairly and that is the key.

Recourse to the courts brings another overwhelming social benefit. Through the well-established mechanism of official law reports and public media coverage matters brought before the courts are transparently revealed to the population at large. As each case of racial discrimination is tried and fairly dealt with we will all see that redress is at hand. That something practical is being done about racism and the practice of racial discrimination in Guyana will no longer be a matter for speculation and tribal political loyalties. It will be being shouted from the courts, newsrooms and on social media for all to see.

As individuals we will each have the evidence that our rights are protected and, ultimately, it is that knowledge that will beat racial discrimination in our Guyana.

Yours faithfully,
David Pollard
Peter Fraser