GUYANA | Fresh Approach needed to confront Guyana’s challenges says Forde

WASHINGTON DC, September 29, 2023 - Shadow Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General Senior Counsel Roysdale Forde, on Wednesday told the Washington Conference on Guyana that there needs to be a new way of framing and confronting the challenges “we face in Guyana” and even in the Diaspora.

In his address to the Conference on Washington in the US Capitol, Fordenoted the urgent need to adopt a fresh and proactive approach in tackling the multifaceted challenges that confront the nation of Guyana. 

He lamented that for too long the APNU+AFC coalition had allowed itself to be pigeon holed by its political opponents, particularly the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C), as exclusively representing the interests of Afro-Guyanese citizens. 

This portrayal, he asserted, was an oversimplification and distortion of their platform and vision for Guyana.

Egregious Violations

Forde, in addressing the largely Diaspora gathering, delivered a searing indictment of the PPP, stating unequivocally: “there is no doubt that the track record of the PPP over the years… is vulgar, is racist, is oppressive, and authoritarian.”

Forde further stated that it was his view that the PPP’s actions had accelerated to a worrying degree since coming into power and highlighted egregious violations of constitutional principles, the depravity of oppressive acts, and the heart-wrenching bulldozing of homes in certain communities.

“We can say without any fear of contradiction that the PPP is vulgar, is racist, oppressive and authoritarian. And we have repeatedly said, the PPP engages in a policy of marginalization.”

“ Since coming to power, we all would have seen an accelerated behaviour of the PPP; an acceleration in terms of their breaches of the constitution; an acceleration in their acts of oppression in the country, the depravity of the acts, the bulldozing of homes,” he continued.

Departing from conventional political discourse, Forde used the occasion to introduce a new word to encapsulate the PPP’s alleged strategy: “displacement.” 

To this end, he postulated that the PPP was navigating a deliberate path to displace a significant portion of Guyana’s citizenry from economic opportunities and hinder their participation in the nation’s progress.

Equal Share

Elaborating further, he pointed to the government’s pronouncements of its intention to introduce thousands of foreign workers into Guyana, a move, according to Forde, that is fundamentally at odds with the country’s current economic and social landscape. 

He underlined the seismic shift in Guyana’s economic fortunes, with the discovery of vast oil reserves, a development that the PPP seemingly comprehended extensively. 

To this end, he was adamant, “we’re no longer fighting over five coins, we are now a country that possesses billions of barrels of oil and the PPP understands this, and they understand that we are entitled to an equal share.”

According to Forde S.C. “they understand at the same time, (that) acting in accordance with the constitution, acting in accordance with the principles of fairness, and equity and equality, will see the rise and empowerment of a number of people that they don’t want to be empowered.”

Forde S.C., as such contends, the government was selectively granting access to this prosperity, in the process deliberately thwarting the empowerment of certain segments of the population.

The alleged displacement, he contends, derives from the government’s reluctance to acknowledge and foster inclusivity, and according to Forde S.C., the PPP/C administration was unlikely to willingly embrace inclusivity.

“This is the fundamental issue; we are gathered here today to discuss inclusivity with a government that rejects inclusivity, they are not going to come to give it to us, but at the same time, they are prepared to bring persons to the country to occupy jobs, to occupy lands, to occupy opportunity”

Authoritarian Regime

Forde in his critique of the administration, said bluntly, Head of State, President Irfaan Ali, “ is the head of a racist, vulgar, oppressive, authoritarian regime, who wishes to mask it now with platitudes in relation to African-Guyanese; this is part of the new plan, to displace to misrepresent and to mischaracterize what is happening in Guyana.” 

Accusing President Ali of cloaking his administration’s actions with hollow platitudes, Forde highlighted the stark contradiction between President Ali’s call on the international community to engage in reparations and his treatment of African-Guyanese within the country. 

He alleged that, domestically, Ali systematically disregarded the entitlements and historical rights of African-Guyanese citizens. 

This, Forde argued, is also extended to indigenous populations as well and more strikingly, he said, the President allegedly ignored the needs and aspirations of his own supporters; all while steering the country toward the establishment of a wealthy few at the expense of a struggling majority.

Equitable Society

“Mr Irfaan Ali calls on the international community to engage in reparations; but at home in Guyana, he mistreats African-Guyanese; in Guyana he disregards African-Guyanenese people of their entitlement, of their historical entitlement; in Guyana he disregards the indigenous people and their entitlement and most importantly, in the context of Guyana and the population we live in, he even disregards his own supporters, all on the way to establish an oligarch, where the few are wealthy and the multitude are poor,” Forde lamented.

The Shadow Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General sought to underscore that Guyana’s constitutional system actively promotes core principles of equality and inclusiveness. 

Theoretically, the constitution provides the necessary legal framework for building a just and equitable society, and according to Forde, “…it has everything inside that is necessary from a legal point of view to establish a proper, functioning, equitable society.”

Everything that is, “except the will which must exist in a government, and we can never find that will in the PPP.” As such, he was unwavering, “we have to force them, we have to force them internationally which we have started today by this trip; but we must also start doing it by changing and putting in place the necessary mechanisms which will limit their terms of office”

According to the senior counsel “…we have a constitutional system that provides for equality and inclusiveness; we have a constitutional and legal framework to which this government and (President) Irfaan Ali was committed to equality; when we measure the talk it’s plenty, it’s deep, it’s full, it’s fantastic but let’s measure the substance.”

Concluding his briefing to the Washington Conference on Guyana, Forde used the occasion to emphasise that  “…the Constitution of Guyana was created by people who were the successors of people who suffered; the Constitution was not meant to be an arrangement of words on a piece of paper to perpetuate injustices.”

The Washington Conference on Guyana, ended on Thursday with Members of the Opposition meeting with more US Legislators in an effort to influence that country’s foreign policy towards Guyana and the Irfan Ali led Administration.

Source:592Xpress