Editorial
Stabroek News
April 15, 2001

Today is Easter Sunday. An occasion of joy for members of the Christian faith. But religion aside, there is little to be joyful about down here on earth. Fear stalks the land. Fear and anger and intolerance. Suddenly that which is rational and reasonable is being silenced by that which is irrational and unreasonable.

As people retreat to the security of their own ethnic groups in situations of extreme tension, they begin to see others, not so much as individuals, but more as stereotypes. And stereotypes are abstractions; they are not real human beings with real human attributes. As such, therefore, the ethical framework within which they normally operate begins to erode, and in due course members of their own group alone are seen as moral beings, and others become the monsters - the cause of all their adversities. In its most extreme form this stereotyping process can eventually lead to situations such as the one which occurred in Rwanda in 1994.

But the real enemy is not without; it is within. It does not have this or that physical feature, rather it lies in our own minds. In its final apotheosis the enemy is race hate, which if allowed to spread unchecked could take us down the road to civil war.

The present disturbances have been initiated by a few members of the African community. Yes, that community has been marginalised. Yes, that community feels alienated. Yes, members of that community have been the victims of discrimination of one kind or another. But fires, looting, mob violence and the terrorization of innocent members of the Indian community cannot possibly be a viable route to addressing those problems at a practical level, and are certainly unacceptable at a moral one.

It is true that there is a general perception in the opposition that unless pressure is applied to the Government, it will never listen. But there are a hundred ways of applying pressure to an administration within the boundaries of the law, which do not involve violence, and do not involve arson. The answer to our current difficulties lies at the negotiating table, not in the streets.

In a situation such as the present one, the political leadership on both sides needs to rise above the stereotypes and exercise some real imagination. It should make an effort to place itself in the minds of the other's constituents. While the message which is coming through from the African community, for example, is one of rage, that rage originates in problems which the Government needs to address with an open mind. It needs to go into dialogue genuinely willing to listen, and most of all, genuinely willing to compromise.

For the PNC's part, it must understand the terror that is being inflicted on the Indian community, and acknowledge that for what it is. But further than that, it should also use its influence in a sustained way to persuade those engaged in this violence to stop. Above all, it needs to disassociate the party publicly from these acts and condemn them, because if it does not do so, it will be acknowledged as their hidden author.

The PNC has laid the cause of our current difficulties at the door of the police. It is perfectly true that there is a serious problem with police brutality which should be addressed with some urgency, but it must be emphasized that in a general sense this is a secondary problem. In the first instance the police are not the instigators of the assaults, arson and the intimidation of peaceful citizens; they respond to these events.

At a time when rationality is needed above all else, and a climate should be encouraged for dialogue, Channel 9 pours its poison into an already corroded chalice. Fully into the stereotyping process, it has identified the 'enemy' effectively as one ethnic group and some of its speakers can be said to be encouraging violence. 'Justice,' however, will not be obtained in this manner, although if this pattern were to be carried to its logical conclusion, social disintegration might be.

In the early 1990s, a radio station opened in Rwanda called Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM). It began as a free-wheeling station whose informal style was popular. It then moved on to encouraging calls from listeners who peddled unsubstantiated rumours. Subsequently it graduated to mirror accusations, charging the opposition with those things which the Hutu extremists were doing themselves, or were about to do, and finally, it became instrumental in inciting people to participate in the 1994 genocide directed against Tutsis and moderate Hutus.

Guyana, of course, is not Rwanda, and Channel 9 is not RTLM. Nor, it might be added, are the talk show hosts the equivalent of Ferdinand Nahimana, who directed Rwanda's premier station in 1994. But while that is an extreme case, it stands as a warning for all of us and especially for the owner of Channel 9, that we are in dangerous terrain, and that sometimes events can overtake the best of intentions. He cannot disassociate himself from what is now being broadcast on his station, and insofar as he does nothing about it, he must accept responsibility for it.

A few years ago, a survivor of the Rwanda massacres was interviewed. He had hidden for the four months of the killings, to emerge to the stench of death when they were over. "When I came out," he said, "there were no birds..." Surely none of us, including the PNC and the other political parties and including the owner of Channel 9 want to wake up one morning and find that there are no birds.