Pres­i­dent Dr. Ir­faan Ali Tues­day said his ad­min­is­tra­tion takes se­ri­ous­ly, any at­tempts to in­sti­gate racial an­i­mos­i­ty and racial vi­o­lence in Guyana.

“We work dai­ly, long and hard through our One Guyana ini­tia­tive to pro­mote qual­i­ty, com­pas­sion, op­por­tu­ni­ties and sta­bil­i­ty for the ad­vance­ment of all Guyanese,” Ali said as the eight mem­bers of the Eth­nic Re­la­tions Com­mis­sion (ERC) were sworn in­to of­fice.

“We se­vere­ly con­demn at­tempts that pro­voke racial con­flict in our so­ci­ety and will en­sure that those guilty are sub­ject to the sanc­tions im­posed by law,” Ali said, chal­leng­ing the Com­mis­sion to in­su­late it­self from the di­vi­sions that seek to over­come the so­ci­ety.

“The work of the Com­mis­sion is non-par­ti­san. It must rise above sec­tar­i­an in­ter­est and work for the com­mon good of our so­ci­ety. In do­ing so, its work will at­tract greater pub­lic con­fi­dence,” he said.

Ali’s state­ment comes amidst the con­tro­ver­sy here that fol­lowed the state­ment by the Work­ing Peo­ple’s Al­liance (WPA) ex­ec­u­tive mem­ber, Tacuma Ogun­s­eye, at a pub­lic meet­ing in Bux­ton, East Coast De­mer­ara where he said that if there is a mass up­ris­ing, the Afro-Guyanese dom­i­nat­ed po­lice and de­fence forces would side with the op­po­si­tion with­in a short pe­ri­od.

His com­ments has drawn crit­i­cism from Pres­i­dent Ali, oth­er mem­bers of the rul­ing Peo­ple’s Pro­gres­sive Par­ty/Civic (PPP/C) that Ogun­s­eye might be cul­pa­ble for crimes of hate, racism, ter­ror­ism, sedi­tion, sedi­tious li­bel, in­cit­ing ri­otous be­hav­iour, and trea­son.

Ali told the cer­e­mo­ny that the ERC can play a piv­otal role in iden­ti­fy­ing and ad­dress­ing eth­nic dis­crim­i­na­tion and in mak­ing rec­om­men­da­tions for elim­i­nat­ing racial dis­cord in so­ci­ety.

“Di­ver­si­ty is an as­set we must val­ue and cher­ish. Greater in­clu­sion and equal­i­ty are goals to which we must con­tin­u­ous­ly as­pire,” he said, re­mind­ing the Com­mis­sion that it is ob­lig­at­ed to pro­mote the elim­i­na­tion of all forms of eth­nic dis­crim­i­na­tion and in­ves­ti­gate any is­sues af­fect­ing eth­nic re­la­tions.

“The Com­mis­sion is a crea­ture of the Con­sti­tu­tion of the Co­op­er­a­tive Re­pub­lic of Guyana. Its com­po­si­tion is de­ter­mined in ac­cor­dance with the pro­vi­sions of the high­est law of our land. Its func­tion in­cludes pro­mo­tion har­mo­ny and good re­la­tions with­in per­sons of dif­fer­ent eth­nic groups.

“Dis­cour­ag­ing and pro­hibit­ing per­sons, in­sti­tu­tions, po­lit­i­cal par­ties and as­so­ci­a­tions from in­dulging in ad­vo­cat­ing or pro­mo­tion dis­crim­i­na­tion on the grounds of eth­nic­i­ty,” he said, not­ing that on the In­ter­na­tion­al Day for Elim­i­na­tion of racial dis­crim­i­na­tion, all of Guyana should re­ject racial­ly laced rhetoric or to be mis­led by those who wish to use race and eth­nic­i­ty to stoke di­vi­sions and ha­tred with our so­ci­ety.

“My gov­ern­ment will con­tin­ue un­der the One Guyana agen­da to pro­mote har­mo­nious re­la­tions with­in our so­ci­ety – re­la­tions that are root­ed in re­spect for hu­man rights, the mul­ti-cul­ture char­ac­ter of our so­ci­ety and the equal dig­ni­ty of all.”

Ali said he was call­ing on all Guyanese to re­ject “every tongue” that ut­ters threats and in­sti­gate ha­tred.

“In so do­ing, we will en­sure that no weapon aimed at di­vid­ing our peo­ple and pit­ting any seg­ment against an­oth­er shall pros­per,” he said.

CMC/gt/ir/2023

GEORGE­TOWN, Guyana, Mar 21, CMC