Dear Editor,
I must say that I am very flattered that Mr Abu Bakr was prompted to complain that “..a decade ago, I asked Dev to list ten things Indians lack in terms of egalitarian legislation or rights of practice… the response was a dead silence.” (`What is the definition of the Indian they wish to protect and preserve?’ SN 10/29/15)
A “decade ago” (2005) I was an MP willing to slog away for a paltry $38,000/monthly, so obviously was not “quality” enough to keep up with my constituency duties. I apologise to my West Coast landsman. (Vreed en Hoop?) but plead other pressing business. What were those in 2005? Thank goodness for Dropbox!
ROAR was still reeling from its participation in the “Rule of Law” march and my speech at the Square of the Revolution calling for an Inquiry into Minister Gajraj’s involvement in “Death Squads” killings. We took a beating again, when the Minister resigned in 2005.
We started the year, (Jan 7th) with a call for a “Centre Force”: “ROAR believes it is time for a “Centre Force” to be created and nurtured. What is
this Centre Force? For one, it’s not a “Third Force” that feels it can wish away the PPP and PNC. It’s a Force that should seek to occupy the political, social, and cultural ground between the PPP and PNC – hence “Centre”. Today in Guyana, there are a number of political parties outside the ambit of the PPP and the PNC – ROAR, GAP, WPA, JFAP, etc. that can begin the process of creating this Centre Force. These could be joined to the parties now in formation by other committed Guyanese.”
Dear Abu, you would not believe how time consuming were the talks by the above mentioned parties and the newly formed one calling themselves the Alliance for Change (AFC). ROAR ended up coalescing with the Guyana Action Party (GAP) with Paul Hardy as leader.
Then there were, of course, those pesky floods that gave us a new word, “lepto”.
In the middle of the year, we also threw ourselves into assisting the committee organising the 25th Anniversary Commemoration of Dr Walter Rodney’s assassination. I worked in the event in my home village of Uitvlugt, while our Essequibo ROAR group did the honours over there. I called for a movement to organise along the lines suggested by Dr Rodney in 1970. I wrote “I think that within our community of Guyana, different ethnic groups need to assert their identity, need to put themselves together, to pull themselves together, and when they have and when they can operate on the basis of mutual respect, which they are not now doing, now, then I think the way will be clear for building a new society, a society of a mixed unit through Socialism. But, first, the various groups must be built up, made conscious of their own potential, their own dignity, their own power, as Guyanese.”
Re political leadership, I cautioned, “These racist structures are deeply inscribed in most of the ideas and practices of the world view that surrounds us – and while they affect most non-white peoples negatively – they are most extreme to African peoples.
The descendants of African slaves especially, and Africans generally – should be very wary about those who would still blithely treat “race” as just another stratification or segregation. We continue to be amazed by African leaders who, in their rush to be under the “one-love-banner” imposed by the dominant paradigm, refuse to accept that the African condition is qualitatively different from that of other groups in the society and demands different programs.”
I could go on, Abu, but the point I want to make is that we never considered the challenges facing the Indian Guyanese community could be disjunctured from the challenges facing the other groups – especially African Guyanese. I really don’t remember your question being posed, but maybe it wasn’t answered because some try to imply that when Indian Guyanese discuss their challenges they are not concerned about the entire society.
Each of our “dilemmas” are intertwined.
Yours faithfully,
Ravi Dev
