The door to paradise
The Freddie Kissoon column
Kaieteur News
December 20, 2006
An Indian Guyanese family has been granted refugee status in Canada. The last time such status was conferred on a fleeing Guyanese by the same country was in 1985. That was 21 years ago. Twenty one years ago Forbes Burnham ruled Guyana; there were no free elections, an entire ensemble of freedoms all democratic countries embody was absent, the economy was virtually moribund, and legal and illegal migration was as noticeable as the blue skies above. Twenty-one years ago BWIA had nothing but contempt for this nation and bona fide Guyanese passengers at the airports at Barbados and Trinidad were ignominiously shunted to a dark room for questioning.
At the moment, enquiries have been sent to certain institutions in Guyana from the Canada Refugee Board. The board wants evidence to substantiate a number of claims for refugee status. All the claimants are Indians. BWIA still treats Guyanese with disrespect. The level of legal migration is more voluminous than it was 21 years ago. There is one vital difference with the eighties however, when Burnham ruled. You could only get to Canada as a refugee. Now all you have to do is to download a form on the internet and apply for self-sponsorship to Canada. Canadian self-sponsorship is bleeding Guyana. All you hear from the 5000 students that are at UG is that on completion of their programme, they will apply for Canadian self-sponsorship. In life you miss people more than places and last Friday evening when a good friend told me that he will be applying, I know Guyana will lose a good manager, an educated son, and I will lose a buddy friend.
One hopes that the Canada Refugee Board turns down every one of those applicants. Crass opportunism by the East Indian population should not be rewarded by the Canadian government. The Indians in Guyana cannot complain about PNC victmisation. There is no PNC government here. Indian people cannot tell the Canadians that a racist Black government is denying freedom to Indian businessmen and farmers. Guyana does not have a Black racist government. Guyana has had an Indian dominated government for 15 years now. The electoral statistics shows that in the 1992 elections and every national poll since then, Indians have voted overwhelmingly for the PPP which is predominantly Indian and which has controlled and dominated this country within a framework and using a political methodology that are characteristic of legal ownership, an uncanny resemblance to the Burnham period. Indian sugar workers deliberately stay in a union that is controlled by the PPP. Indian communities have never taken to the streets in huge numbers to tell this government that their dreams are broken.
Why then should Canada just open its doors to a group of people who invented a monster, then when it got out of control, didn't even try to use the fire extinguisher but just decided that they will leave and walk into another people's land just like that. Who do the East Indians in Guyana think they are? They should be given a rude awakening. They should be refused by the Canada Refugee Board. People will stay and work in Guyana and Guyana has much to offer. What Guyana lacks is humane, enlightened, realistic, and practical leadership. There are supposed to be discussions of inclusive governance between Jagdeo and the opposition. One meeting was held five weeks ago. Nagamootoo is still waiting to hear from Jagdeo.
I utilised my youthful dreams to fight the PNC so this country could get back a democratic parliament. For the past 14 years, the parliament of Guyana has been nothing but a farce, charade and masquerade. It took the burning down of Regent Street, looting, robbing, kidnapping, the murder of twenty-four policemen, the criminal revolt of Buxton, and some strong arm tactics from the western government to get the PPP to talk; something we referred to as the “dialogue.” Where is the “dialogue?”
You look at the changes that will be coming to parliament and you wonder why only now, why 15 years after the PPP promised it would democratize Guyana during the '92 election campaign. You look at these new parliamentary features and you see how old they are because our CARICOM neighbours have them. After blood, mayhem, betrayal and broken dreams, Guyana will be having them soon. Will we? In yesterday's Stabroek, there was a letter about a young doctor being denied duty free car facility if the car is above 1500 cc. This is so unjust because the Fiscal Amendment Act does not restrict duty free cars because of its engine capacity. How can a government be so bullyish in its attitude to its citizens?
I once mentioned in one of these columns my dilemma with the Eccles housing scheme. I can produce evidence, hard, cold evidence that after I was told that all the middle income houselots were taken, four persons in a class category far above me, and who could have afforded the purchase of private lands, received plots. I know in many middle income housing scheme started by the government, unused lands sold as house lots are being held by owners for purpose of speculation. Hoyte never gave out land to UG lecturers, civil servants, nurses and teachers. And that is unforgivable.
The PPP shared out house lots but in the process created a colossal, corruption machinery. I see super-rich people building Miami-style houses that you also find in the Mediterranean island of Monaco, on government land that was sold for a mere million Guyanese dollars. These people's washrooms probably cost a few millions. One hopes that in the terms of engagement between government and opposition, there will be a monitoring committee to see that these lots are being distributed without discrimination and with full transparency.
So where do we go from here? I hope the new dialogue with the parliamentary opposition does not result in a close door system where the PPP scratches the PNC's back and vice versa. That is, the PPP offers soup to the PNC and they both lock out the AFC and GAP/ROAR. If we are to dream again, if Guyana is to come alive again, the PPP and the PNC have to open up to others who have values to bring to their country. All of us should support the upcoming confabulation between the total parliamentary opposition and the PPP. Hope is what this country is living on. The Guyanese people should be shown the door to paradise. No other people have suffered so much for such a long time. No other people so deserve it.