Dear Editor,
US Congressman, Hakeem Jeffries, uttered at a Guyanese religious conference on June 11, 2022 in a Brooklyn church, “… Not everyone in Guyana is treated consistent with the principles of equal protection under the law,” adding “I will not tolerate racism in Guyana.” These remarks, made without the support of any evidence, are beneath acceptable norms of an elected member of a legislature. And it is most disappointing that they come from an elected person high in the Democratic Party of the US House of Representatives.
The New York Guyana Democracy Project (NYGDP) pens: “As a political leader, we recognize Mr. Jeffries’ right to speak out against any form of discrimination, including racism, wherever the evidence exists. What we disagree with is when distorted information and falsehoods are expounded, and no attempt made to get to the truth.” NYGDP adds: “We know that politicians tend to flourish in an environment of polemics and platitudes, but this approach must change as people are becoming smarter and looking for reason and evidence, and simultaneously rejecting emotional outbursts to explain situations. If Mr. Jeffries really wants to get a proper understanding of the situation in Guyana, we invite him to make a visit to our beautiful country.” The organization lists for the benefit of the Congressman and others factual social indicators pertaining to equality:
(1). With respect to poverty and inequality, both Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese, according to Professor Tarron Khemraj, have an almost similar level of poverty: Indo-Guyanese 30% vs 31.6% for Afro-Guyanese, and 33.7% for the mixed races.
(2) There are limited data on income inequality: they are at the national level. The Ginni coefficient for Guyana was 45 compared with Trinidad & Tobago with a score of 39, and Barbados with a score of 40. (The lower the score, the better the income distribution). While the latter two countries have a better income distribution than Guyana, the difference is not significant. There was no score for individual ethnic group.
(3) The PNCR received $(US) 18 million as Exxon signing bonus and no one knows about the disposition of this sum.
Sincerely,
Vishnu Bisram
