Dear Editor,
I have refrained from engaging Mr. Clement Rohee, former Home Affairs and Foreign Affairs Minister and now GECOM commissioner in the public space, to avoid the perception of condoning the targeted attacks on him which had often evoked his past as a city youngster around the Metropole cinema rather than focus on his political conduct and public service. I opted to demonstrate solidarity with Rohee by my silence. Today I depart from that position.
The former PPP/C General Secretary returned to public political life as his party’s commissioner to GECOM, replacing the late Bibi Shadick, not surprising in the context of the present political situation. Mr. Rohee, a long-standing and experienced politician, wasted no time indicating the context and purpose of his appointment and mission. The Stabroek News article, August 17, 2022 quoted the former minister as stating the Commission’s staff to “reflect what Guyana looks like.” And “See, we know when you go into a polling station or when you go, to do registration certain perceptions which I would not wish to detail at this point in time, tend to emerge. So we need to have staff that reflects what Guyana looks like and this is going to be extremely important…”
There is no need for Rohee to detail his position. The message is crystal clear. The PPP/C wants the composition of GECOM staff to change – there are too many Africans. This is not a new position for the PPP/C. Rohee’s appointment (an apparent step down from his former Ministerial status) is to ensure the make-up of GECOM staff reflects the racial and population reality of the country. Even in the face of internal and external criticism of its policies of exclusion, the party, through its new enforcer of racial quotas, held no hesitation to boldly express and press forward with its agenda of political and racial domination of the country.
The PPP/C government, when faced with criticism from the African community and the opposition against its racially discriminatory policies, resorts to its “false reality” denial cry. I conclude with this observation, with the appointment of Mr. Clement Rohee to GECOM, we are in for interesting times.
Sincerely,
Tacuma Ogunseye
