In a statement just issued, the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) claims, “Guided by historical lessons of turbulent elections, the ERC reminds all citizens, regardless of political affiliation, to exercise restraint, engage in dialogue, and reject any form of hostility or divisiveness that threatens national harmony.”
Well, frankly, “boat done gone a falls on that one”!! Has the ERC been monitoring the slew of social media channels that have taken over the media landscape to such a degree that their viewership is in the hundreds of thousands, while the old media can barely draw a couple of hundreds??
On the former platforms, extremist politicians and their camp followers spew such undiluted racist harangues 24X7 that it’s a wonder that we haven’t ALREADY generated regular frenzies of violence!!
After the elections?? Interestingly, most of the hate-filled rants are directed at the PPP and their supporters – whom the haranguers insist are Indian Guyanese!! Yet, when they detect the PPP courting votes across the divide, they denounce the latter for being “slave catchers”!! Damned if they don’t and double dammed if they do – go for multi-racial votes!!
This kind of politics played out in Rwanda, where the two ethnic groups, Hutus and Tutsis – they were both Africans – literally went at each other’s throats. In the 1990s, the ruling Hutus massacred more than 800,000 Tutsis – those who hadn’t fled into neighbouring Congo – while the US, led by the Western powers, watched on!! Eventually, the Tutsis formed rebel groups and recaptured the Government of Rwanda.
Now, you might have (reasonably?) expected retribution, but their leader Paul Kagame ruled otherwise.
And the policies he introduced – which have not only brought Rwanda back from the abyss, but have made their country one of the most stable and prosperous in Africa – should be of interest to us. What did he do?? Well, there’s the economic transformation: the capital Kigali is the envy of Africa. Smooth streets curl past gleaming towers that hold banks, luxury hotels and tech startups!! There’s a Volkswagen car plant and an mRNA vaccine facility. A 10,000-seat arena hosts Africa’s biggest basketball league. Average life expectancy rose to 66 years, from 40 years between 1994 and 2021, says the UN.
One of Kagame’s first acts was to publicly erase the dangerous divisions that had fuelled the genocide. He BANNED the terms Hutu and Tutsi from identity cards, and effectively criminalized public discussion of ethnicity. “We are all Rwandan” became the national motto!! Critics claim that it’s not all hunky-dory: “People work together, they go to church together, they do business together. That is good. But under the carpet, those ethnic divisions are still there.”
Well, should those ethnic divisions again be exploited to unleash violence?? Lesson for us??
…in the Opposition
One of the most ludicrous episodes in our political history has hopefully just ended. Among the social media “influencers”, there’s one who dubbed herself “Melly Mel”. She transmuted herself from a purveyor of voyeuristic street smut into taking on the PPP government on “corruption” – once she moved to NYC. Her notoriety secured all sorts of supposedly “confidential” information, which she then weaponized. Some claim it was also used for blackmail!!
But here’s the astounding part. Suddenly, because the Government protested the potshots being hurled against them, Melly Mel branded herself as being “PERSECUTED” by the Government!! The Opposition – not able to get their act together to take on the PPP on policies and programmes – picked up the “persecution” charge.
But it didn’t end there. When Melly Mel was suddenly picked up by ICE during the present US immigration tightening – the Opposition claimed it was the PPP’s doing!! Such power!!
Now it’s revealed that Melly Mel overstayed her visa, is PPP getting an Opposition apology??
…from Mad Maduro
After Secty Rubio, responding to what would happen ff Venezuela attacked Guyana, said: “It would be a very bad day – a very bad week for them”! Mad Maduro retorted that Rubio was “an imbecile”!! Takes one to know one!!
