POPULATION-GUYANA: Living Under the Threat of a Race War

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Bert Wilkinson

GEORGETOWN, May 28 1998 (IPS) - Enough is enough, at least that is how businessman Peter DeGroot feels about the tension between the races which has been simmering for a long time and which he says has now reached boiling point.

So he and a group of the country’s top business executives, tired of living under the threat of a possible race war between the majority East Indians and the Black population have decided to put pressure on leaders to find a political solution before the rapidly deteriorating situation worsens.

Indians make up 50 percent of Guyana’s population now numbering 760,000 while Blacks make up 39 percent. Amerindians, Chinese, Whites and other groups make up 10 percent.

This week the team met President Janet Jagan suggesting to the head of state that some form of solution must be found before there is a repeat of the 1960s when race riots left 150 persons dead, millions of dollars in property damage and a massive migration wave to the US and Britain.

Indians who dominate the economy and Blacks the government service and military, have had an uneasy relationship ever since the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) split in 1955, with most of the Indians staying with the party then led by late socialist leader, Cheddi Jagan and Blacks going with the more moderate Forbes Burnham of the now Opposition People’s National Congress (PNC).

“The Indians are said to be in the majority and if we agree that we always vote race, it means that Blacks and the opposition People’s National Congress… will always be out of power. There is need for the politicians to come up with some kind of engineering or we will always worry about trouble,” says DeGroot, head of the Guyana Rice Millers and Exporters Association.

The business persons representing commercial banks, the beverage industry and commercial aircraft operators among others, were prompted to meet the head of state because of fears that the results of an audit of disputed election results held last December could spark violent clashes between the two groups similar to what occurred five months ago.

The report of the audit is expected to be released to Caribbean Community (Caricom) Chairman Keith Mitchell this weekend. Jamaica’s Percival Patterson is also expected to be present in a bid to give the highest possible level of support to the process.

Official results of the Dec. 15 elections gave the PPP traditionally supported by the Indian population victory over the PNC. The PPP was said to have won by 60,000 votes.

The PNC charged that the elections were fraudulent and took to the streets, virtually paralysing economic life in the capital and coastal areas. DeGroot says it was especially unfortunate that the contest was held in December when most entities rake in up to 50 percent of their annual profits.

As part of a peace settlement, Caribbean leaders brokered in the height of unrest in January, leaders should have already started the process of rewriting the constitution.

No work has been done to date. Business, labour, the clergy and other groups have all argued that the country will never progress unless there are constitutional guarantees that no one group will dominate any other politically or otherwise.

Forced to shut shop during the January to December demonstrations, DeGroot said the business community took a severe beating, compounded later in the year by drought-like conditions blamed on the El Nino weather factor.

“It is clear that we can’t continue like this, says DeGroot. “All the tensions associated with elections will occur every five years. In fact, we have an election coming up in three years and we will always be vulnerable to social unrest.”

The move by the entrepreneurs came a week after Army Chief of Staff Brigadier General Joseph G. Singh called for a settlement to the race problem, saying all development plans will come to nothing if left hanging.

“A descent into mob rule, anarchy and civil strife cannot be encouraged, condoned or tolerated,” said Singh.

“We in the security forces appeal to the leaders in our society, all of whom wish to be regarded as mature, responsible, patriotic persons with the nation’s interest at heart.

“Let us not be dependent on brokered international or regional accommodations or interventions, but show the strength of character and responsibility to break with the past, to temper ambition and expectation with realism and to stand out as role models for the nation’s youth,” he added.

As an indication of the tension level in the society, Jagan Monday night decided to hold the annual Independence Day (May 26) flag- raising ceremony indoors — at the national cultural centre — instead of the national park, fearful of some kind of trouble between the groups.

Last March, protesters hurled huge rocks at her car as she left Parliament after the ceremonial opening of the legislative season.

Additionally, a cocktail reception for diplomats and other top officials was held at Police headquarters Wednesday instead of the customary location in the city’s northern end, also because of security concerns.

Jagan has also complained of death threats from undisclosed sources.

Some Guyanese have suggested that Jagan’s origins could also be a factor in the present racial tension in the country.

Janet Jagan has been living in Guyana for the past 53 years, arriving there as a young woman of 24 after she married late President, Cheddi Jagan whom she met in Chicago.

But what many call her impressive record of service to the nation is taking a back seat to the fact that she was not born in Guyana, that she is white and still speaks with an American accent. This, some say, is unacceptable in a country whose people are predominantly of East Indian and African descent.