PPP, PNC, AFG commit to race-free zone pledge
Three of the parties in Parliament have committed their organizations to being race free by signing the pledge being promoted by the Rights of Child (ROC) organisation. PPP General Secretary, Donald Ramotar; PNC Leader, Desmond Hoyte; and Alliance for Guyana (AFG) Member of Parliament, Dr Rupert Roopnaraine signed the pledge on behalf of their respective parties on the occasion of International Human Rights Day outside the Guyana Post Office Corporation building yesterday. Present at the observance were United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative and UN Resident Co-ordinator, Richard Olver, members of the diplomatic community and other invitees. Olver read a brief message on behalf of United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, which called on people to rededicate their efforts to eliminating racism. The message said that many people the world over were persecuted and lived in fear for no other reason but being born into one racial grouping. In brief remarks the three signatories congratulated the young people who comprise the ROC for recognising that there is a problem of racism affecting the development of the nation and for taking the initiative to eliminate it. Ramotar said that the PPP as a political party, which came into being to fight for independence and the social liberation of the Guyanese people, had always been against racism. The founder of the party, Dr Cheddi Jagan, he said, gave tremendous service to unite the Guyanese people, by first defeating colonialism. But the country still has a long way to travel to achieving unity. He pledged that the PPP will build on the efforts of ROC and on the efforts of those who have gone before. Hoyte noted that it was a good thing that young people had taken the initiative to address and ultimately eliminate racism, which was the cause of much suffering in the world. It was significant that young people should be in the forefront in the education process working among many to eliminate racism, he added. Cautioning against hypocrisy, Hoyte said that many claimed to be fighting against racism, but added that anyone pledging to fight racism must do it with their heart and soul. The PNC, he said, was supportive in word and deed of ROC's effort in making the country a race-free zone in time. Roopnaraine said that signing the pledge was one of the easiest things for him to do. He said that the Working People's Alliance (WPA), which had contested the last elections under the AFG, came into existence 25 years ago because of the problem of polarisation. Roopnaraine is co-leader of the WPA. ROC's Race Free Zone pledge, he noted, was the second major initiative the group has undertaken. The first was a signature campaign which attracted thousands of signatures for a paragraph pertaining to the rights of young people to be inserted in the reformed constitution. This paragraph, he said, met the approval of the Constitution Reform Committee and it has been submitted without any change. Roopnaraine described racial polarisation as the most stubborn obstacle to the country's development. Noting that there was an appetite for reconciliation, he said that there was need for all to reconcile as a people or the country will not see much progress. He added that it was significant that young people were pointing the way in which the nation must go.
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