I would like to comment on a press statement two weeks ago by ACDA which is designed to carry this nation further into the abyss of dark violence. Before we dissect the public statement by ACDA against the Ethnic Relations Commission, some analytical discussion on some new historic paths that this country has embarked upon is in order.

As part of our own efforts here in Guyana and through the concern of the international community, particularly Guyana’s traditional, western allies, mechanism and institutions have been founded to enhance the democratic process. Three manifestations of these should be named because of their importance. The ACB – the Advisory Committee on Broadcasting. The ERC – the Ethnic Relations Commission. And the sectoral committees of Parliament.

Crucial to understanding the vital importance of the EAB and the ERC is the fact that these two avenues for the enhancement of democratic behaviour were agreed upon by the major stakeholders in Guyana through consensus. The EAB is a three-person panel consisting of government nominee, an opposition appointee and a representative from the private sector. The formation of the ERC was done using more elaborate consultative methods. It was a result of constitutional reform.

The decisions of the EAB have never found favour with both ACDA and the PNC since that body began the monitoring process of the electronic media.

Why then did the PNC agree to the birth of the committee and why would its nominee sit down and allow the committee to show bias against media houses that are closely aligned with ACDA and the PNC? The attitude of these two organisations to the work of the EAB shows the intractable nature of the problem in Guyana – for narrow, political and racial reasons political actors are prepared to sacrifice the life of their country.

ACDA and the PNC are clear in their position on the EAB – it picks on Channel 9 only. But even if it cites other channels, the PNC and ACDA do not accept EAB sanctions against Channel 9. The reasoning is barefaced and of a bullyish nature - the EAB must not touch Channel 9.

The situation gets more absurd when you take into consideration the hidden psychological thinking of the PNC and ACDA – Channel 9 does not broadcast things that are in the vein of racist incitement. Simply put then, have your EAB but do not touch Channel 9. This is the exact argument of ACDA with regards to the Ethnic Relations Commission, which we will come to in a moment.

What we have then, are two important organisations that have agreed that Guyana must pursue a path of reconciliation and democratic consolidation and to this end, they have agreed upon monitoring mechanisms to ensure social peace is not jeopardized but the system must operate the way they want it.

This unconscionable role of the PNC and ACDA in relation to the work of the EAB has led us back to square one. And it gives racist hate talk-show hosts on Channel 9 more encouragement to pursue a planned agenda of racist advocacy.

Most comforting is the PNC’s non-action so far on the hearings by the Ethnic Relations Commission (ERC) into Kean Gibson’s inflammatory, perverted, dangerous, twisted and psychologically worrying propaganda work on race relations in Guyana which is an unadulterated advocacy of racist incitement.

Gibson’s book has not achieved its mischievous and evil intentions because this multi-racial society is a modern one that refuses to descend to the level of primitive barbarism. Despite half of a century of ethnic strife, the Guyanese psyche is not driven by race hate, and that is what keeps us as a people and as a country going.

ACDA’s exclamation in a press release that the ERC is holding an inquisition to prosecute Kean Gibson is yet another manifestation of how enormous the race “thing” is in this country.

This is the usual ACDA as we described above. Alright, have your EAB and your ERC but do not touch any African person at all; we won’t accept you doing that. Again, the psychology at work goes like this – no African person in Guyana preaches race hate so the ERC must not interfere with what African commentators say.

In its press statement, ACDA refers to the inquiry into Ms. Gibson’s racist diatribe as an act of lynching. So no one can go to the ERC and make a complaint against an African citizen and ask for an investigation. If you do that and the EAB acts, then a lynching process will occur.

Why then did the legal document bringing the ERC into being allow for complaints? And how would any constitutional body function if you cannot seek redress from it. One needs to ask ACDA if the Ombudsman is out to lynch people when he conducts his probes into wrong doing? This is not only dangerous stuff but it is pure, unapologetic bullying tactics.

If anything written in this country the past forty years encouraging racist anger in citizens of this land, it is Kean Gibson’s little booklet, the “Cycle of Racial Oppression in Guyana.” It is an act of indignity for a trained mind to defend such a baseless, worthless, indecent, ignorant demonstration of propaganda literature.

The major participants in constitutional reform decided upon the birth of the ERC to prevent propagation of hate literature like Gibson’s devilish, obnoxious and diabolical tract. Whether written by an African, an Indian, or a mixed race person, the contents of this tract is fiction and emotional rage, and it should be condemned as such.

The ERC after its prosecution of Gibson must now turn its attention to an Indian writer in the Stabroek News by the name of Amar Panday and the Stabroek News itself. Mr. Panday is guilty of preaching race hate and the Stabroek News is guilty of printing his evil thoughts.

I was disappointed to know that my friend Abu Bakr in Paris dignified Panday’s perverted writings by offering a reply. I quote from Panday and urge the ERC to investigate this man. He wrote, “In Guyana and Trinidad, Creole culture involves retention of some fragmentary elements of Indian culture massaged into this Africanised ethos.

This inevitably manifests itself in a downright degeneracy…the decadence of Adesh Samaroo (singer of the song “Rum till I die”) is testimony to the destruction that comes to a people with creolisation.”

This man is the Indian version of Keane Gibson. He should be hauled in front of the EAB for preaching racism.