By Ashley Anthony Having just applied to university, there is one thing that I think I have learned from the entire process: Guyana needs more people giving educated guidance to young people attempting to kick-start their tertiary education. Application to university is a nebulous, complex process, especially so if one is applying to schools abroad. Whilst it is wonderful that we have the option of studying at the University of Guyana, students should be aware that it is not their ONLY option. There are many brilliant Guyanese students who have…
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Déjà vu minority rule
By Ravi Dev What is unfolding in Guyana is a return to the rule by a minority regime, which was practised by the PNC between 1968 and 1992. The PNC had then inherited the colonial state — pretty much a “crown Colony” governorship, with all its apparatus intact — in 1964. It then not only maintained the structural pattern of domination established by the British, but once Burnham jettisoned his junior coalition partner, the United Force, in 1968, he successfully increased the extent and reach of that domination. While he…
Read MoreOpinions of young people should not be limited
By Ashley Anthony Young people are an incredibly important part of our society. Yet, for some reason, many of us feel undervalued. We feel sort of shortchanged: too young to be taken seriously, but too old to not be doing something meaningful. But then how can we do something meaningful if we aren’t taken seriously? Undervaluing youth happens at every possible level. It happens in the home, at school, in the workplace, and even in the community. Young people are stereotyped as being irresponsible and naïve, and thus their opinions…
Read MoreCoalition Politics
The Cummingsburg Accord was announced on Valentine’s Day, Feb 14, 2015, by APNU and AFC as the culmination of sustained negotiations that would delineate the distribution of power in the government to be formed if their consummated coalition were to win the imminent elections. But the Accord had wider reverberations for Guyanese politics. One factor militating against coalitions in Guyana — in addition to the inherent distaste for the mechanism in the Liberal Democratic conventions passed on by the British – is their reluctance to acknowledge that the basis of…
Read MoreAPNU/AFC Govt using CoI as a tool for political harassment
Dear Editor, The PNC-led APNU regime has announced its intention to set up another Commission of Inquiry (CoI). This time, it is to ‘probe’ the killings of mainly criminals, which took place during the crime waves of the more recent past. Included in that period was the assassination of Sash Shaw, former Minister of the PPP/C Government. The regime obviously has some plans to use this for some political gains in a Hitlerite tactic to create conditions for its actions of repression. Remember Adolf Hitler had the Parliament burnt down…
Read MoreSeeds of ethnic conflict
By Ravi Dev Commendably, there are a significant number of commentators who have realized that a majoritarian system of democracy presents severe challenges in a society that is riven by groups that approach each other in numbers. Even in comparatively homogenous societies, there is the obvious question of legitimacy of the government formed when almost half of the populace did not vote for it. When those groups identify themselves, and are identified by others ethnically — as in Guyana — the question of legitimacy becomes even more contested. It is…
Read MoreThe ERC
After months of consultations and back-and-forth, the National Assembly, last week, approved 10 persons from various organisations to serve as members of the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC). The new members include Dr John O. Smith from the Christian bodies; Sister Rajkumarie Singh representing the Hindu bodies; and Roshan Khan from the Muslim bodies. The Labour Movement bodies nominated Norris Emanuel Witter as their representative; the Private Sector Organisations’ representative is Major-General (Retd.) Norman McLean, while the Youth Organisations are represented by Deodat Persaud and the Women Organisations by Ruth Howard.…
Read MoreReintegrating deportees
According to a recent US Immigration report, a total of 137 Guyanese were, for various reasons, deported from the USA in 2017. This, of course, is a significant increase when compared to the previous year (2016), which had seen ninety-three (93) Guyanese nationals being sent back home. With regard to the rest of the Caribbean region, Haiti saw five thousand, five hundred and seventy-eight (5578) of its nationals being deported in 2017. Similarly, that figure represents a massive increase when compared to 2016, when just three hundred and ten (310)…
Read MoreIntegrating Guyana
By Ravi Dev Politically, Guyana is a country like a bear caught in a trap, and can only eat away its trapped foot in a desperate attempt to free itself. And it is because leaders refuse to consider other forms of governance, such as federalism or consociationalism, which are more suited to Guyana’s history and sociology. When they hear the word “federalism”, for instance, most Guyanese think of Guyana being “divided”. But federalism — simply another way of integrating a country with “factions” – was first explored by the US.…
Read MoreA tragedy of epic proportions
Inevitably, the politics of sugar is playing out; and just as inevitably, given the nature of politics in Guyana, it is taking the form of a tragedy – a tragedy of epic proportions. Sadly, it has been a tragedy that was enacted many times in our history, and its form was established coterminous with the foundation of the country back in the seventeenth century. Sugar cultivation and extraction was labour-intensive, and had to be cheaply available on demand at specific times of the year. African slavery “solved” this problem, but…
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