Warning that the country is on a path towards “ethnic confrontation” in the aftermath of the vote on the no-confidence motion against the government, the Guyana Human Rights Association yesterday called for an agreement by the two major political parties to stop fuelling ethnic insecurity.
“…Both parties are beginning to mobilise in ways that do not inspire confidence. The scenario for generating ethnic insecurity has played out so often in the past that its phases are well-known,” the GHRA Executive Committee said in a statement, having noted that the parties have repeatedly “exploited the ethnic fault-lines” of the society for electoral advantage for the past 70 years.
The statement pointed to recent bomb scares as being the start of a ploy to unnerve the population in general and to discourage ethnic solidarity. The GHRA said this will inevitably be followed by prolonged controversy from both sides over the state of the voters’ list, which it described as “the tool of choice” for pressing ethnic buttons. “Television programmes fueled by righteous indignation of party political programmes cultivate intransigence and confrontation, projecting compromise as cowardice. All of this hypocrisy should be condemned and repudiated,” it added.
