THE much-touted CGID-PNC-AFC-WPA so-called conference in Washington DC to discuss discrimination with US lawmakers has fallen flat on its face. Guyana woke up this morning to the news that the PNC-AFC delegation was embarrassed that they did not have any data to provide when asked for it by the Americans. A sombre Roysdale Forde (Shadow Attorney General, Attorney-at-Law) confirmed that “today, we were requested again to provide data of discrimination and marginalisation by representatives” (Demerara Waves, 9/28/2023). Note the word again.
The truth is the PNC-AFC and their cohort of electoral bandits and development deniers have always been pressed for this information. Yet, they went empty-handed, sobbing, pleading for understanding, begging for an opportunity to raise some other issues other than what they went for, namely, to talk about discrimination. Forde and Norton begged for another opportunity, sometime in the future, to find some evidence. The excuse they offered was pathetic, at best. Said Forde: “The opposition was faced with a “diabolical” situation in which government has refused to consult on the establishment of the constitutional Human Rights Commission which is empowered to conduct studies, formulate reports, investigate and assess instances of marginalisation and inequalities.” (Ibid). Balderdash, plain and simple. There is the Ethnic Relations Commission in place, and Norton, Forde, and Desir could have gone there for information. Parenthetically, I should remind readers that I have regularly urged Nigel Hughes and others to take cases of discrimination to the ERC. They never have, because there is no case.
I worked in Washington DC for 25 years, and so I know a thing or two about the place. While “DC” is full of political theatrics, when they get down to business, they do not work with hearsay. They work with evidence. Letters in Kaieteur News and Stabroek News do not constitute evidence. Neither do the fancy editorials concocted in the interests and idioms of the MMC and TUS (as per Freddie Kissoon). The racialized nonsense regularly deposited by the likes of Dr. Henry Jeffrey, Lincoln Lewis, Hamilton Green, and, inter alia, the Hon. Annette Ferguson (MP), met its demise on the doorsteps of democracy.
The PNC and AFC have disgraced a space where epic struggles for racial equality and equity have occurred. They went there to exploit the powerful historical presence and memory of giants like W.E.B. DuBois, Marcus Garvey, CLR James, Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, A. Phillip Randolph, Jesse Jackson, and John Lewis. The PNC-AFC-WPA axis thought they would exploit the powerful historical surroundings as a backdrop to make exaggerated claims of discrimination. How diabolical!
Forde’s admission of having no data was backed up by the ubiquitous but ill-equipped Amanza Walton-Desir. Here she is in her own words: “The provision of empirical data: when we speak, one of the challenges that you have is that they say, ‘where is the information?” (Ibid). You read that right! The Shadow Foreign Minister admits that they were pressed with this most predictable question – “where is the information”? They had none to offer.
And how about the Chief Executive Officer of the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly-Guyana (IDPADA-G), Olive Sampson-Cannings? Well, her admission of ill-preparedness is even more revealing. She is quoted as saying: “When the United States articulates its policy on Guyana, they speak to inclusion. Inclusion has to be measured. We need to collect the data that speaks to where are the gaps…The collection of data is important in order for us to make the case” (Ibid). Let me say to Ms. Sampson-Cannings that she has it right. You must have data. You cannot meet with congressional leaders with the expectation that they will believe you based on appearance and ancestry.
The PNC-AFC trip to Washington DC to air grievances is an unmitigated disaster. To tell the truth, I feel sorry for Norton, Forde, Desir, and their gang. Shameful behaviour in Guyana is bad. But to be put to shame in the leading capital of the world, must be humiliating.
