The Working People’s Alliance (WPA) on Saturday called on the government to initiate an “ethnic and national reconciliation” process, while warning that tensions between the country’s two major ethnic groups poses a danger to national stability.
In its message to mark the 183rd Emancipation anniversary, the WPA noted that this year’s observation comes at a critical time for African Guyanese as they continue to navigate the changed political environment triggered by the change of government a year ago.
“In our charged and divisive political environment, any change of government brings with it new anxieties and fears for the group represented by the losing political contestant. But the controversial nature of the last election has left in its trail an unprecedented ethnic fallout that has worsened ethnic relations between the two major ethnic groups. The situation has been exacerbated by the apparent ethnic insensitivity by the new government which interprets its mandate in broader and more absolute terms than is usual,” the party, which had been part of the former APNU+AFC coalition government that lost office last year, said.