GUYANA | Nandlall denies emerging apartheid system in Guyana, Publisher Glenn Lall disagrees

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, September 5, 2022 -  Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, has charged that the idea of Guyana becoming an apartheid state is being peddled by the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly-Guyana.

During his weekly programme ‘Issues in the News’, the Attorney General pointed out that the recently appointed NRF Board of Directors under the Natural Resources Fund Act showcases the PPP/C Government’s inclusivity and effort at ensuring transparency and accountability. He said the composition of the board dismisses the idea that Guyana is an emerging apartheid state.

 The Attorney General pointed out that the recently appointed NRF Board of Directors is made up of one Amerindian, two Indo-Guyanese and two Afro-Guyanese, and is responsible for the management of the monies derived from Guyana’s most valuable natural resource.

During his weekly Facebook programme, Nandlall  pointed to  the International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly-Guyana’s proposal to have a discussion themed, ‘Resisting the emerging apartheid state,’ as evidence to support his charge. 

According to the Attorney General,  “apartheid is any system or practice that separates people according to colour, ethnicity or caste, according to the Oxford Dictionary, and pointed out that “to suggest Guyana is becoming an apartheid state is evil, destructive and most of all, unlawful and unconstitutional.”

“The laws and legal system of Guyana outlaws’ racism and racial segregation of every type. The Supreme Law of the country says that no law shall discriminate. No action of the state shall discriminate. How can you have apartheid as a system emerging anywhere?”, the legal affairs minister questioned.

Nandlall described the characterization as “bizarre” on the basis that many Afro-Guyanese hold prominent positions in all sectors. He said in government alone, many of the ministries are led by not only Afro-Guyanese ministers, but also Permanent Secretaries.

He further pointed out that the Guyana Defence Force, the Guyana Police Force and the Judicial System are all led by persons of African descent.

“It is a constitutional wrong. It is a crime under the Racial Hostilities Act  for this type of language to be published at this type of narrative to be disseminated and as Attorney General, I consider it my duty to speak out against these sordid but serious constitutional atrocities and human rights travesty. 

This is a human rights travesty. They are pitting one human being against the other based upon race and appealing to people’s basal instincts. They want to make Indo-Guyanese the enemy of Afro- Guyanese,” the Attorney General said.

Despite this however, respected publisher and columnist GHK Lall, writing in The Village Voice, on August 27, 2022, demanded that the convesations begin regarding an emerging Apartheid state in Guyana.

“We must have conversations on perceptions, realities, possible extents of apartheid in Guyana.  Though it is dangerous to speak to the truth of what is happening in Guyana, this discussion must occur.  It must be probed honestly and fearlessly, regardless of outcome.  For this is more than the welfare of Black Guyanese that is at stake; it involves the character of the national well-being ultimately,” Lall said.

He went on to observe that “I discern broad, deep paranoia infecting governance in Guyana today, and the mere mention of this word-apartheid-mutates to the profanest 4-letter word.  The most accursed of caste systems is present in Guyana today, but unlike South Africa or Israel, it has no owner, no sponsor, no godfather. 

This explains why those who should know better, were themselves victimized recipients in an earlier season of apartheid, in all but name, are now content to be ostriches burrowing for wisdoms (and cover) in deep mud, where neither of the three (wisdoms, cover, and mud) are present.”

 Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo at a press conference last week charged that the IDPADA-G was using the cause of Afro-Guyanese to enrich themselves. 

During the press conference, Jagdeo challenged the group to show how they spent almost $500 million they have received from the government to empower Guyanese.

Chairman of Chairman of the International Decade for People of African Descent-Guyana, Vincent Alexander, took issue with Jagdeo’s suggestion that his Board of Directors has personally received monies from the almost GY$500 million allocated by the government. insinuated that  some GY$100 million from the State’s coffers was  but none has reached to Afro-Guyanese.

Alexander explained that  IDPADA-G was a not-for-profit company whose directors did not earn a salary and were executive members at the time of the founding of the company “They are volunteers. They are not  in receipt of any material benefit from IDPADA-G,” he said, adding that the secretariat whose salaries are in the ratio of the range of the public sector’s entities to current expenses,” the Chairman declared.

In the meantime, The IDPADA-G Chairman Alexander has threatened to sue Vice President Jagdeo for defamation of Character. Alexander’s lawyer Esui Anderson says Jagdeo has defamed his client by falsely and erroneously claiming that he ran IDADA-G for personal gain, advancement and benefit.

Anderson has demanded that Jagdeo publicly apologizes to Alexander and provide an unconditional retraction of his comments by September 3, or face a $50-million dollar lawsuit in compensation for the restoration of his name based on the enormity of the damage caused by the defamatory comments.

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