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Ethnic concerns and the related preoccupations are not new to Guyana but as a nation we have consistently displayed a marked reluctance to confront such issues in a pragmatic fashion. As a consequence, although ethnicity wields considerable influence in our daily life, social relationships and interactions it has, until now, failed to secure the official consideration it deserved.
Guyana is a land of several ethnic groupings who, over the years, have conspired to make this land their home. In the circumstance, while we may quibble and prevaricate on the significance of the contribution of each group, we have long accepted that the contribution is substantial and critical to the emergence of the current nation state.
Interestingly enough, here in Guyana, race and ethnicity are used interchangeably but given the obvious differences, physical and cultural, it is not at all surprising that concerted efforts have always been made to exploit such differences to the detriment of a collective national development ethos.
Inter-ethnic rivalry has bedeviled this country since the early 1940s when the politically ambitious opposed a liberal franchise arrangement based solely on ethnic consideration. This rivalry was accentuated when on the eve of political independence, ethnic cleavages dictated political alignments. Indeed, collective, inter-ethnic violence engulfed the colony in civil war proportions between 1963 and 1964. In the post-colonial state, competition for limited professional, economic and political space dominated inter-ethnic relations and the society became polarized along ethnic lines.
The deleterious effects of such a socio-political arrangement could be managed in an authoritarian state but they posed serious administrative challenges in an open society, intoxicated with the notion of a newfound democratic tradition. In the circumstance, the 1990s witnessed the emergence of open and undisguised ethnic insecurity that threatened the foundation of the national economy and the security of the state. It is in these circumstances that the Government passed the Ethnic Relations Commission Bill in 2000 and now moves to put the Commission in place.
The primary task of the Commission is to promote good relations among the various ethnic groups and thereby reduce the prevailing feeling of ethnic insecurity. This is by no means an easy job. The seeds of division were set in the early post emancipation period and have taken deep root. The stereotypes have been internalised and influence social perceptions and day-to- day relations. The competition for scarce resources and limited space are perceived in terms of survival needs rather than luxury wants. It is to be hoped, nevertheless, that the members recently sworn in to the Commission are committed to their task and will in the process of time display this commitment, irrespective of all else.
The post-colonial state has seen a proliferation of commissions and committees which have produced little to justify their original appointments. Indeed, within our very own times, we have witnessed the appointment, amidst much fanfare, of the Ombudsman. Never before, in the history of this young nation, was so much expected of an enabling agency, yet it has subsided with a whimper, the passing of an inauspicious legal encumbrance. The Ethnic Relations Commission is a similarly much needed agency and the times and our fears demand that it functions efficiently and effectively. The society will be much the worse for its failure and harsh in its judgment if yet another agency, with the capacity to do good, will have betrayed the hopes and expectations of this nation.